WHEN the survivors of the Andes plane crash returned home 200,000 people turned up to greet them at the airport – but for many the hero’s welcome turned sour.
The 16 men from Uruguay who made it off the South American mountain in 1972 after 72 days stranded without food or water supplies made a pact not to tell anyone they’d resorted to eating the flesh of the dead.
So when reports appeared in the media in Chile about bodies being cut up, the survivors had to explain that they would have starved to death if they hadn’t consumed human meat.
Only those that turned to cannibalism lived.
While most people, including the Catholic church, forgave them, at least one set of parents of the dead did not.
Initially there were even rumours that the survivors had killed their fellow passengers in order to eat them.
Carlitos Paez said: “This bothered us, really, because it wasn’t true and it put some doubts in the minds of the families of the other boys that died.”
The trauma of the ordeal affected each of the survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in different ways.
Some wanted to live their life to the fullest, partying and drinking, while others returned to their everyday lives.
One suffered from drug addiction, another became a racing car driver and another a renowned doctor.
Two of the survivors denied their true identity in order to avoid the difficult questions.
But one thing united them all – they stayed friends.
The 14 still alive meet up every year on December 22 to remember the day they were rescued.
Most of them were already pals, having been members of the Old Christians rugby club in Uruguay’s capital Montevideo.
Only the body of Rafael Echavarren was removed from the mountain because before he died he told a friend he wished to be buried back home in Montevideo.
His father Ricardo went to recover his body even though the Argentinian authorities refused permission and he was arrested for grave robbery.
Eventually, though, he was let go with his son’s remains.
The movie Society of the Snow, about the close bond they formed in minus 30 temperatures in the fuselage of the wrecked plane, has been a Netflix smash hit and a three-part documentary, Andes Plane Crash, on Channel 5 documentary tells the story this week.
Here we look at what happened after they were airlifted from the wreckage.
Aged only 18 when the plane crashed, Carlitos struggled more than most to acclimatise to regular life after being saved.
He developed a drug addiction, which he overcame thanks to fellow survivors Nando Parrado and Gustavo Zabrino who took him to a rehab clinic
Carlitos, the son of a famous painter called Carlos Páez Vilaró, now has two children and five grandchildren.
He became a successful advertising executive and found it was helpful to talk about his experiences.
When the Hollywood movie Alive came out in 1993 Carlitos said: “It was like a therapy because you began to talk about it again. It was the end of a mourning.”
Nando trekked for ten days over frozen mountain peaks to raise the alarm, having witnessed both his mother and 19-year-old sister Susana die in the Andes.
Everyone back home thought they were all dead – so his motorbike was sold and his room cleared out.
He said: “Arriving home almost three months after the crash, my clothes had been given away, my room given to my older sister who had moved in with her family, my posters and photographs had been removed, and my motorbike sold.”
Nando, 74, lived the high life for a while, going clubbing and became a racing car driver.
He is now a father-of-two married to wife Veronique and a successful businessman, TV producer, who has spoken at various events across the world and written a book.
The medical student helped to save lives following the crash and went in search of help with Nando.
Roberto, 70, became a renowned Cardiologist and Paediatrician who was awarded the National Award of Medicine in Uruguay three times.
The talented rugby player represented Uruguay eight times, spoke about his time on the mountain, married and had two children.
His doctor son, Tino, said that Roberto is “addicted to life”.
Bobby was brave enough to talk to the parents of one of his friends who died on the mountain about the decision to eat human flesh.
They told him that they never wanted to see Bobby again and would only be at peace when he was dead.
Understandably, the rancher, who is married with five children, has largely avoided speaking publicly about the Andes plane crash.
But in a 1993 documentary he said: “When someone comes up to me and asks: ‘Are you the Francois from the Andes?’, then I say: ‘Who? … it’s my brother or my cousin’. I change the subject and then that’s the end of it.
“If I could only forget about it, I would. People say I should probably talk about it more, but I prefer to talk about something else.”
The tobacco company executive could not save the life of his 35-year-old wife Liliana when she was buried in an avalanche that covered her as she slept on day 17 of the disaster.
Liliana had helped to nurse the survivors of the initial crash and Javier was determined to get home to their four children.
The couple were two of the last people to decide to eat human flesh, doing so because they knew they had to live.
Afterwards Javier, who died in June 2015 aged 79 from cancer, remarried and had four children.
The medical student couldn’t face a career as a doctor after seeing so much death in the Andes, commenting “I had seen enough suffering.”
Instead Gustavo, who is divorced with four sons, did charitable work, worked in the chemical industry and became president of the Old Christians rugby club in Montevideo.
He spoke highly of the Netflix movie Society of the Snow, commenting: “It’s a very powerful message. A lot of love, a lot of union.”
One of three Strauch cousins who got off the mountain alive, Eduardo has returned to the crash site more than 20 times.
The 76-year-old architect, who still practises, was so caught up in keeping alive in 1972 that he could not shed any tears for the friends who died.
But going back to remember them helps him.
He says: “When I go now I can cry. I like to be on that mountain that I hated in the beginning and now I love it.”
The ingenious Fito created pairs of sunglasses on the mountain because the glare of the sun on the white snow was so painful that he couldn’t leave the wrecked plane.
Father-of-four Fito, who was aged 25 at the time of the crash, didn’t want to tell his children about the cannibalism.
But he realised he had to tell them because other kids knew.
Fito, who worked in agriculture, said: “I wanted my son to be prepared for what he would hear in the schoolyard.”
The reserved member of the rugby team was scared to get on an aeroplane when they had a reunion match in Chile in 2012.
Roy said at the time: “Making this trip from Chile, all of us together, has been bad for me.
“I always think the plane will crash when I am on board.”
He married Cecilla – the sister of Roberto’s wife – and had three children.
Alvaro has not spoken publicly about what happened on the mountain in 1972 and went to live in Brazil for several years.
Married with four children he returned to Uruguay and became a Board member of the Old Christians rugby team.
For a long time Daniel denied that he was one of the Strauchs that had been in the Andes crash.
He told them it was a brother “and the topic would be dropped”.
But he changed his mind when he realised that suicidal people were so inspired by the 16 survivors’ determination to live that they decided not end their own lives.
Married father-of-three, Daniel, 77, who founded a tech company, said: “I thought to myself, ‘This is why I survived. I survived so I could tell the story and help people.'”
Another survivor who has kept himself to himself, father of three Jose moved to Argentina before turning to Uruguay.
Tintin volunteered to go find help with Nando and Roberto, but they agreed he had to go back to camp when they realised there were not enough food supplies for three of them.
His second wife died in a car crash and he had to look after their four children.
Married for a third time, Tintin used to work in the plastics industry.
Ramon wasn’t a member of the rugby team and only got on the doomed flight for a weekend away with his pals Bobby and Carlitos.
The 71-year-old took up various business, including breeding ostriches, selling car parts and selling properties.
He was not happy about the way society reacted to their story, commenting: “On the mountain, we had to create a society to survive.
“Down here, we have to survive society. We ate the dead, you eat the living.”
Pancho spoke for the group when a press conference was held six days after their rescue in 1972.
But he hasn’t spoken much since publicly and refused to get on a plane for the reunion in Chile in 2012, choosing to drive instead.
He said: “I was willing to do what was necessary to get here, except board a plane.”
The dairyman escaped the Andes despite suffering gangrene and losing 50 per cent of his body weight.
He was desperate to get home to his girlfriend Soledad, who he later married.
The father-of-three died last summer aged 75 from cancer.
He published a book titled Memories of the Andes and appears on the new Channel 5 documentary titled Andes Plane Crash.
