Andes Flight Disaster Of 1972

By | April 10, 2019

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Andes Flight Disaster. Source: (historyhit.com)

The thought of becoming a victim in a disaster of any kind is not a pleasant thought. Most people rely on rescue workers such as firemen, ambulance attendants, and policemen as well as the Coast Guard and other related personnel to help them in times of emergencies. But what if there were no one to contact for help because it was believed that there were no survivors. Such was the case of those who became the victims of the Andes Flight Disaster of 1972.

It was Friday, October 13 of 1972 when the Rugby team “Old Christians” was traveling from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile to play the team there. There were a total of 45 passengers on the flight. Problems began to arise beginning with the weather, as they were flying over Argentina, which forced them to land and spend a night there before they could continue. Because of the dangerous mountain peaks of the Andes, the flight plan had been changed. They instead attempted to fly parallel to the mountain peaks that would take them to a mountain pass out of the danger zone. At least that was the plan.

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Wreckage from the plane crash. Source: (onehallu.com)

That plan failed miserably. The pilot, erroneously, turned directly into the Andes Mountains because he was not where he thought he was. With cloud cover hiding the mountains from his view, along with not having enough flying experience, he was unable to control the steering of the plane quickly enough to avoid the disaster of hitting the mountain peaks.

As they got close to the border of Chile, they were in an area of unexplored remote mountains. It was the peak of one of these mountains that took out one of the wings and sent the plane into a tailspin. The other wing was also lost as they spiraled downward into a mountainside and eventually landing into a snowbank.