Nando Parado Survivor

On Oct 1972 Nando Parado, a member of the Old Christians, a rugby team from Uruguay, boarded a plane to play a game in bordering Chile. His mother Zenia and sister Susana were also accompanying him on the trip. Unfortunately, the plane would never make its intended destination. And Parado would have to experience cannibalism, an avalanche and a 10 day hike through the Andes mountains.

Nando Parado was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and was the son of Selaro and Zenia Parado. He was the older brother of Susana Parado and younger brother of Graciela Parado. He attended the Stella Maris and showed excellence in sports, particularly in the sport of rugby.Due to inclement mountain weather the plane could not fly directly over the Andes, to Santiago, Chile. Instead, the pilots had to fly south, parallel to the Andes, then turn west towards the mountains, before finally turning north and initiating descent to Santiago after passing Curico.

The atmosphere inside the plane was alive and festive, Parado and the other passengers were having good time laughing and passing the ball around, this however would soon come to an end. The pilot notified air controllers in Santiago that he was over Curicó, Chile, and was cleared to descend. That proved to be a fatal error. Since the pass was covered by the clouds, the pilots had to rely on the usual time required to cross the pass. However, they failed to take into account strong headwinds that slowed the plane and increased the time required to complete the crossing. They were not as far west as they thought they were and, as a result, the turn and descent were initiated too soon, before the plane had passed through the mountains, leading to a controlled flight into terrain.

Dipping into the cloud cover while still over the mountains, the Fairchild soon crashed on an unnamed peak (later named the glacier of tears). The plane clipped the peak at 13,800 ft, neatly severing the right wing, and tail. The plane then clipped a second peak which severed the left wing and left the plane as just a fuselage flying through the air. The fuselage hit the ground and slid down a steep mountain slope before finally coming to rest in a snow bank, ll,800ft above sea level. The last thing that Parado remembered was the roof over his head being torn off.

Of the 45 people on the plane, 12 died in the crash or shortly after, including Parados mother; another five had died by the next morning. Parado himself was left unconscious at the time, after being thrown from his seat to the front of the plane. His face was badly bruised, leaving him barely recognisable. When he was discovered by other survivors, they initially thought that he was dead, and they placed him outside in the snow near the fuselage with other dead passengers, in order to make room inside for survivors. The remaining 27 faced severe difficulties in surviving high in the freezing mountains. Many had suffered injuries from the crash, including broken legs from the aircraft's seats piling together. The survivors lacked equipment such as cold-weather clothing and footwear suitable for the area and mountaineering goggles to prevent snow blindness.

During this time Parado was safely sealed off from the harshness of the weather, as the pile of dead bodies around and on top of him kept his unconscious body at a stable enough temperature protecting him for 3 days. Once people noticed that Parado was showing signs movement they carried him into the fuselage. Two of his team mates, Roberto Canessa and Gustav Zerbino, explained to him what had happened and that his mother had died. Although he was devastated at the death of his mother, he realised that there was nothing he could do for her and turned to aid his injured sister. During that night his sister died peacefully beside him.

Search parties from three countries looked for the missing plane. However, since the plane was white, it blended in with the snow, making it virtually invisible from the sky. The initial search was cancelled after eight days. The survivors