A survivor of the 1972 Andes plane crash who resorted to cannibalism to survive 72 days in the snow recalls the anguish of eating his friends’ meat, but says Calvary “doesn’t live with it.”
- José Luis ‘Coche’ Inciarte was one of 16 who escaped death after an accident in 1972
- He and other survivors were forced to eat the meat of their friends in order to survive
- Rescued 72 days after Dr. Roberto Canessa and Nando Parrado found help
- He spoke today of the pain it caused him and said the story “has not left him”
A survivor of the plane crash who resorted to cannibalism to avoid starvation recalled the mental turmoil he faced as he tried to eat his friends ’bodies.
José Luis ‘Coche’ Inciarte was one of the 16 men who escaped death when his milk plane attacked the Andes between Chile and Argentina on October 13, 1972.
They were rescued 72 days after the survivors, Dr. Roberto Canessa, Nando Parrado and Antonio Vizint, walked for ten days for help, but some who had remained at the crash site were forced to eat the corpses of his dead friends to survive.
Car, who showed up this morning, explained that he had to “make a great energetic and mental effort” to be able to eat his friends’ meat, but insisted that his anguish did not “live with him.”
José Luis ‘Coche’ Inciarte (behind, second from right) was one of 16 men who escaped death when his lawyer’s plane attacked the mountains of the Andes between Chile and Argentina on October 13, 1972.
After asking him if he had accepted his memories, he said, “No, history doesn’t live with me.
“I live my life the way I imagined in those days and when I have problems I think of the Andes and the problem seems to be very little against others, so it helps me, but it’s not part of my life.”
Car was one of 45 passengers on Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 when it crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain range during a flight from Santiago to Montevideo.
Twelve men died on impact, five more in a few hours and one more a week later. The tragedy happened again on the 17th day of his ordeal when an avalanche killed eight more of the passengers.
Car, who showed up this morning, spoke of the difficulty he had to make a great effort of energy and mind to be able to eat the flesh of his friends.
He told hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford that their anguish does not “live with him” today
Survivors had little food and no heat source in harsh conditions at more than 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) altitude.
Faced with starvation and radio news that had abandoned the search, those who lived were fed on the dead passengers who had been preserved in the snow.
“There was no other option if you want to stay alive,” Coche said. “We had a meeting together and we discussed whether to do it or not, not doing it seemed to mean dying, everyone decided to eat.
“When you went to take a piece of meat, your friend’s body, his icy body, the hand doesn’t obey and you have to make a great effort of energy and mind to make the arm obey, and then obey, no immediately.
The group of survivors was rescued 72 days after Dr. Roberto Canessa, Nando Parrado and Antonio Vizint survived for 10 days to get help
“It was the same with opening your mouth to put it inside your mouth and swallowing.”
The group was saved when Canessa, Parrado and Vizint ran into Chilean shepherd Sergio Catalán, who fed them and then alerted authorities.
When asked if he thought he would come out alive, Coche said, “Most days I thought I was going to get out of there … I had a lot of confidence in them to get somewhere and they did.
But other days, in those terrible days we were waiting for them, me [thought] that they were not going to get anywhere, so I put the date of death on December 24th ‘.
Coche’s harrowing story was told in the 1993 film Alive, and the survivor spoke of the film’s accuracy.
“Some things are invented and others are true,” he said.
“The film is very well done with all the effects, but we never fell into a hole in the snow and the other one is really for me, my actor had a guitar, I’ve never played in my whole life . ‘