These survivors defied the odds. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the harrowing true story behind the Netflix movie “Society of the Snow”.
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00:00 "If I die, I give you permission to feed off my body."
00:02 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the harrowing true story
00:06 behind the Netflix movie, "Society of the Snow."
00:09 "Some say it was a tragedy. Others say it was a miracle."
00:14 As "Society of the Snow's" opening monologue explains,
00:19 the events of late 1972 are described as both a tragedy and a miracle.
00:24 On October 13th that year, Flight 571 departed from Montevideo, Uruguay,
00:29 heading toward Santiago, Chile.
00:31 The flight, going on a common route, which headed south from Montevideo to cross a lower
00:38 point of the Andes mountain range, then turned northwards again to reach Santiago,
00:42 and was only supposed to take 90 minutes.
00:44 Instead, it took over 10 weeks, or 72 days to be exact,
00:56 for the passengers to leave the mountains and reach Chile.
00:59 Many passengers belonged to the old Christian's Club rugby union team,
01:03 and were on their way to a match in Chile. They also brought their family members on the flight.
01:08 Blame for the crash rests on the co-pilot's shoulders.
01:16 The pilot in command was training him on the route, but it's still not clear why,
01:20 when the co-pilot appeared to read the instruments wrong, the pilot in command didn't take over.
01:25 Ultimately, the co-pilot, Dante Lagorara, believed he had overshot Curicó,
01:31 the point where he was supposed to turn north.
01:33 Neither the pilots nor air traffic control realized that a huge mistake had been made,
01:37 and Flight 571 turned north long before it should have.
01:41 As it tried to descend, they soon saw they were on a collision course for the mountains,
01:46 and they couldn't regain enough height in time.
01:54 As seen in the movie, the plane struck a mountain ridge,
01:57 tearing it in half, cutting off the wings and crashing at the top of a mountain.
02:01 Of the 45 people aboard the plane, 12 died immediately due to the crash,
02:13 and on the first night, five more. Their only shelter from the elements was the plane fuselage,
02:19 but it was little help against the severe weather, which hit -22 degrees Fahrenheit at night.
02:25 The plane had some food, but this ran out quickly,
02:28 and they resorted to eating anything they could find,
02:31 including leather straps and cotton seat filling.
02:34 The only silver lining in all of this was that being on a snow-capped mountain,
02:39 they were able to melt the snow and get fresh water.
02:46 None of them had any survival training, but luckily,
02:49 there were two medical students on the plane, Roberto Canessa and Gustavo Zardino.
02:54 They were able to treat the wounded, though many still tragically perished.
02:58 Despite the search effort beginning only an hour after the plane was expected to land in Santiago,
03:06 with planes passing over the survivors and wreckage three times,
03:10 it was eventually called off after eight days.
03:13 [Spanish]
03:15 It was impossible to see the white plane against the snowy mountains from the air,
03:28 and it wasn't believed that anybody could have survived,
03:30 but dozens were still alive at this point.
03:40 However, they'd run out of food and began to get sick.
03:44 Knowing that help wasn't coming anytime soon,
03:46 they made the now notorious decision to use the bodies of the deceased passengers for sustenance.
03:52 In "Society of the Snow," we see the survivors agonize over this,
04:04 and how it was a crime and a sin not to mention that those people were their family and friends.
04:09 But it soon became clear that if they were going to survive at all, it was necessary.
04:13 To make it easier to accept, they compared it to organ donation, or communion.
04:24 Considering it took another two months to be rescued,
04:26 we know that if they hadn't done this, they all would have perished.
04:37 The situation got even more dire on October 29th, though, when there was an avalanche.
04:42 In a 2024 interview, Roberto Canessa revealed that in his opinion,
04:46 the avalanche was more horrific than the decision about the food supply.
04:49 He said that he was buried alive,
05:00 and that they were trapped in the fuselage during a blizzard for four days.
05:04 Eight more people died during this ordeal.
05:07 They dug their way out when the storm ended,
05:09 but had to wait for the snow to melt for the fuselage to be exposed to the air again.
05:13 After this, they began putting together a plan to get help.
05:22 With the weather beginning to ease up,
05:27 remembering that as this is the Southern Hemisphere,
05:30 the summer months are December to February,
05:32 they started to explore beyond the crash site.
05:34 After various failed attempts to descend the mountain,
05:45 though one expedition did result in them finding the plane's tail section and some more food,
05:50 and more deaths,
05:51 the final and ultimately successful expedition began on December 12th.
05:55 [Spanish]
05:57 This was almost two months exactly from the day the plane crashed.
06:09 [Spanish]
06:11 Initially, Nando Parado, Roberto Canessa, and his team
06:19 were the only ones who were able to get to the crash site.
06:22 [Spanish]
06:24 Initially, Nando Parado, Roberto Canessa, and Antonio Bizzini left
06:29 after constructing a large quilt that could be used as a sleeping bag during their descent.
06:33 But there was another blow to morale when they realized that they weren't as far west as they believed.
06:38 They were much deeper in the Andes,
06:40 and the trek to leave the mountains would be long and dangerous.
06:44 It became clear that they hadn't brought enough food for the three of them,
06:47 so Bizzini turned back.
06:49 [Spanish]
06:51 Parado and Canessa weren't convinced they would survive the trek,
06:55 but decided to attempt it anyway,
06:57 and thank God they did.
06:59 It took 10 days, but finally,
07:01 Parado and Canessa escaped the snow and the mountains,
07:03 and found themselves in the Chilean countryside.
07:06 It was still an extremely rural area, however,
07:09 and it took a while for them to find anybody who could help.
07:11 [Spanish]
07:14 [Spanish]
07:16 Eventually, though, they came across an arriero,
07:25 a man with a pack mule, and using a note tied to a rock,
07:29 were able to get a message to him by throwing the rock back and forth across a river.
07:33 [Spanish]
07:35 The authorities were notified, and Parado and Canessa were housed
07:42 and given real food for the first time in months.
07:45 Just a day after they'd been rescued,
07:47 three helicopters arrived to ascend the mountain
07:49 and find the remaining survivors as soon as possible.
07:52 [Spanish]
07:54 Nando Parado volunteered to go with them as a guide,
08:02 though we can't imagine it was easy to go back up that mountain.
08:05 [Helicopter]
08:07 [Screaming]
08:10 [Helicopter]
08:12 The helicopters had a strict weight requirement,
08:17 which meant that unfortunately, all the survivors couldn't be rescued at once.
08:21 [Spanish]
08:23 Six were brought down on December 22nd,
08:28 and the remaining eight on December 23rd.
08:30 [Spanish]
08:35 In total, 16 people of the original 45 survived the ordeal,
08:40 spending 72 days in nightmarish conditions in the heart of the Andes Mountains.
08:45 Though this is where Society of the Snow ends,
08:47 with the survivors safe and receiving medical treatment,
08:50 the story isn't quite over.
08:52 As we all know, the 1972 disaster is infamous because of what they did to survive,
08:57 namely eating the dead.
08:59 Stories began to circulate almost immediately,
09:02 with photos taken of the crash site showing partially consumed remains appearing in the press.
09:07 Horrifically, speculation began that the survivors had actually killed their family and friends for food,
09:12 which they absolutely hadn't.
09:14 [Spanish]
09:16 They were forced to hold a press conference mere days after being rescued to address what had happened,
09:22 explaining what they had done, why they had done it,
09:25 and that the survivors who'd had the chance, i.e. those who hadn't died immediately,
09:30 had agreed to this, to help their friends survive.
09:33 [Spanish]
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09:52 In the decades since, while the entire story is very harrowing and maybe distressing for some to hear,
09:59 we know that it was truly a matter of life and death.
10:02 [Spanish]
10:10 They all would have died if they hadn't done this.
10:12 The deceased were finally laid to rest at the crash site,
10:15 and today, there's a memorial and an altar.
10:17 What was left of the plane was burned.
10:20 There's also a museum dedicated to flight in Montevideo, the Andes Museum 1972.
10:26 Many of the survivors have spoken and written about their ordeal,
10:29 with Parado becoming a race car driver and motivational speaker,
10:33 and Canessa ultimately qualifying as a doctor.
10:35 [Spanish]
10:45 Some of them have even returned to the mountain and the crash site in the years since being rescued.
10:49 Eduardo Strauch in particular says that returning helps him to remember those they lost.
10:54 Let us know whether you watched Society of the Snow and what you thought of it.
10:58 It's a difficult story to hear, but an important one to be told,
11:01 about how even against insurmountable odds,
11:04 when the entire world is against you, you can persevere and make it out alive.
11:09 And that was the true story behind Society of the Snow.
11:12 [Spanish]
11:19 [Music]