Canessa agreed.

For three days they survived in an appallingly confined space since the plane was buried under several feet of snow. She had been the last surviving female passenger. They carried the remaining survivors to hospitals in Santiago for evaluation. According to Read, some rationalized the act of necrotic cannibalism as equivalent to the ritual of Holy Communion, or justified it according to a Bible verse (Eight of the initial survivors subsequently died on the afternoon of 29 October when an avalanche cascaded down on them as they slept in the fuselage.

They had no technical gear, no map or compass, and no climbing experience.

Members of the amateur Old Christians Club rugby union team from Montevideo, Uruguay, were scheduled to play a match against the Old Boys Club, an English rugby team in Santiago, Chile. The reason for the journey was a rugby match. The solar collector melted snow which dripped into empty wine bottles.

Witness accounts and evidence at the scene indicated the plane struck the mountain either two or three times. The survivors had a small amount of food: a few chocolate bars, assorted snacks and several bottles of wine. Before the avalanche, a few of the survivors became insistent that their only way of survival would be to climb over the mountains themselves and search for help. One of the other team members, Roy Harley, was an amateur electronics enthusiast, and they recruited his help in the endeavour. Most of the time they fail to pique our interest.

Fito Strauch devised a way to obtain water in freezing conditions by using sheet metal from under the seats and placing snow on it. On that morning, conditions over the Andes had not improved but changes were expected by the early afternoon. They decided instead that it would be more effective to return to the fuselage and disconnect the radio system from the aircraft's frame, take it back to the tail, and connect it to the batteries.

This was the beginning of one of the most overwhelming stories of survival in human history. The next day, the man returned. 360° panoramic views of snow capped mountains. They were treated for a variety of conditions, including Under normal circumstances, the search and rescue team would have brought back the remains of the dead for burial. With no other choice, on the third day began to eat the flesh of their newly dead friends.With Perez dead, cousins Eduardo and Fito Strauch and Daniel Fernández assumed leadership. Unknown to the people on board or the rescuers, the flight had crashed about 21 km (13 mi) from Hotel Termas, an abandoned resort and hot springs that might have provided limited shelter.On the second day, eleven aircraft from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay searched for the downed flight.The others who had clustered around Roy, upon hearing the news, began to sob and pray, all except [Nando] Parrado, who looked calmly up at the mountains which rose to the west. We have many cases of people who - they decided to commit suicide.

The next collision severed the right wing. They sent small groups out on expeditions to locate the tail of the plane, hoping to find usable batteries.So in a last ditched attempt, 3 of the passengers decided to walk out of there.

It was still bitterly cold but the sleeping bag allowed them to live through the nights.

So rather than fly directly over the Andes from Mendoza, the flight plan was to head south, cross the Andes at a point where the mountain range isn’t so high before turning northbound to Santiago.Quite soon after the plane turned west to cross the Andes, there was a navigation error made. The pilot was able to bring the aircraft nose over the ridge but at 3:34 pm, the lower part of the tail cone may have clipped the ridge at 4,200 metres (13,800 ft).

Upon returning to the tail, the trio found that the batteries were too heavy to take back to the fuselage, which lay uphill from the tail section.