B2. Andes Plane Crash! 72 Days Lost - at 12,000ft

1: The Fall 00:00

Diego laughed with his teammates as the airplane bounced. Up, down, up again. Someone joked, "At least we're not walking to Chile." One person vomited. Diego's sister held his arm. A mountain appeared at the side of the window. "Are we already landing?"

Then—metal tore like paper. The plane screamed as it hit the mountain.

Wind roared against their faces. Seats ripped free. Diego's body flew forwards, then sideways. Then, there was silence.

>

Diego opened his eyes. Snow fell through a hole in the roof. His ears rang. Blood was frozen on his lips. Around him, in the twisted metal, wounded teammates cried out. Others didn't move at all.

He sat up slowly. Every muscle ached. Through a broken window, the Andes mountains looked endless. White peaks after white peaks under an icy blue sky.

They were flying to Chile for a rugby match, but they had gone down. Now, the plane was a crushed can. The back of the plane was gone. Just gone. Where the tail should have been was now just empty air and snow.

And all the people who sat in the back rows? They had all disappeared, including Diego's mother.

Where was his sister? "Anna?" "Anna!" he called out.

He crawled to his sister. Her leg was broken. She was bruised, but still breathing.

"Diego?" she whispered.

"I'm here," he said, hugging her close.

Anna looked to where the tail had been. Her eyes filled with tears. "Mum. Mum was... she was sitting right behind me."

But now she was missing like so many others. Lost to the mountains.

Introduction 03:23

This is a true story. Names, conversations and some details have been changed for English learning.

It is 1972. A rugby team from Uruguay crash their airplane in the second-highest mountain range in the world—the Andes. Warning: This story includes some upsetting scenes, but is inspirational. A transcript in 13 languages is in the top link.

Diego's sister is alive but hurt; their mother is gone. They're trapped at twelve thousand feet. Day one.

2: Cold Goodbye 04:22

Rafael appeared beside them. "How many are alive?" he asked.

12 people were gone, and 33 were left. The dead lay around like broken dolls. The wind blew below freezing. And the sun was going down.

That first night, they heard the mountain's voice—wind sounded like screaming, ice cracking like gunshots. They pressed together for warmth, but the cold found them anyway; through the metal floor, through the thin walls, through their clothes.

By morning, five more were dead.

The following days were a mix of extreme cold and hunger. They melted snow to drink water. They shared the few chocolate bars they had.

They slept huddled together. They used seat cushions as beds, and plastic bags to stop wind from coming in. Diego always slept with his arms around his sister.

On the third day, Anna got worse. Her breathing became shallow, her skin white. Diego talked to her about home, about their waiting father. She whispered, "Tell Papa I love him."

On the 8th day, she closed her eyes, and they didn't open again. Diego sat with her, until her hands turned cold. Then, he put her body outside with the others.

3: The Choice 06:43

Food became the constant thought, the ache of hunger that never went away.

On the tenth day, Carlos fixed the radio. They all sat close together to listen, hoping to hear news. Finally, a voice came through. A report from Uruguay!

"Shh!" said Rafael, excitedly.

"After eight days of looking, the search for the missing airplane has stopped for the winter. I repeat, the search has stopped. The police believe no one survived the crash in the Andes mountains."

"Our families will think we're dead," whispered Rafael.

Diego's friends' faces broke. Some cried. All their hope disappeared into the mountain air.

The pain was too much for Diego. With his mother and sister gone, now his father would think he was dead too? No rescue planes would come. No search teams would find them. They'd be forgotten, by the world below.

Now, the last of their chocolate was finished. And the wine bottles were now empty.

On the twelfth night, they lay shivering in the broken plane, when someone said the thing they were all thinking — Rafael, a medical student. His words were quiet. "The souls are gone," he said. "What's outside is just meat. Food. The same as any animal."

These weren't just dead bodies. They were friends, teammates, family.

Rafael said, "If I die, I want you to eat me."

No one spoke.

Finally, Diego said, "God would understand."

They made the choice that would haunt them forever - to stay alive.

4: Snow and Thunder 09:40

The first time was the worst. Diego cut the first piece of meat from one of the bodies. He used broken glass as a knife. He didn't look at the face, so he wouldn't remember their voice, or their smile.

Soon, everyone was eating the frozen muscles. They prayed before each meal, asking for forgiveness.

The food gave them strength. Diego felt more energy in his body and his mind became clearer. He knew he had to get home, to see his father again.

However, the mountains had different plans.

On day seventeen at midnight, Diego woke up to a sound like thunder. Then, an explosion of snow! An avalanche.

Everyone was buried. Diego crawled upwards in the darkness. He broke through the snow's surface.

The avalanche was huge. Diego dug frantically. He shouted names. He followed quiet cries from under the surface. They pulled out Carlos, then Rafael, then three others, all shivering and breathless.

But soon, the quiet cries from underneath stopped. They couldn't find everyone.

Eight died that night. The avalanche had taken them, with most of their supplies.

5: The Long Walk 11:47

Winter was getting worse; every night was colder than the last. Diego shivered until his teeth hurt, and his fingers had no feeling left.

People spoke less, lost in their own minds. When would this horror end? Days became weeks. The mountain was killing them bit by bit. Hope was turning to madness.

They planned to wait until Spring. But by then, Diego figured they'd be dead. They couldn't wait that long.

He made a decision to walk across the mountains to find help!

On day sixty-one, Diego and Rafael got ready. They made sleeping bags from the plane's insulation. They packed meat into socks, and waved goodbye. "Next time you see us, we will be in a helicopter!" said Diego.

The mountains were never ending. Peaks rose like white teeth. Ridge after ridge went on and on, to the horizon. Neither of them knew how to climb mountains. They had no proper equipment. No maps. No idea which way to go.

Carlos whispered, "Promise me something." His hand felt like bones on Diego's arm. His face, skeletal. "When you survive, tell our families we never gave up." Carlos looked back at the others. "Some of us won't last another week."

Diego put his pack on his shoulders. "We'll be back, brother."

Then began the longest walk of their lives.

6: Steps of Hope 14:19

At 12,000 feet high, every step was difficult. Breathing hurt in the thin air. Their snowshoes were made from pieces of the plane. Plastic bags were wrapped around their feet. At times, they were waist-deep in snow. By evening, they had only walked three miles.

On the second day, they climbed. Diego's legs shook with exhaustion. But he thought of his father, and took one more step. Then another.

On the third day, they finally reached the top of the mountain! But then they looked ahead. And, their hearts sank.

They did not see green valleys, oh no. But row after row of mountains. Endless rows of white peaks, as far as they could see!

For seven more days, they walked through the cruel white landscape. They slept pressed together for warmth.

Then, on the tenth day, they noticed something. The harsh angles of the rock were becoming softer, gentler hills. The snow was getting thinner. Then, they saw it! A tiny patch of green far below. Green! Impossible. Beautiful.

Diego and Rafael half-ran, half-fell down the hill. The green patch was grass! Real grass! Rafael jumped to the floor and ate some. There were yellow flowers too, and a river! And across the river, a man on a horse!

Diego tried to shout, but nothing came out his mouth. The boys waved. The shepherd saw them and rode his horse to the river's edge.

The river was too wide and too fast to cross. The shepherd threw them a piece of paper and pen, wrapped around a stone. Rafael wrote on it, "I come from a plane that crashed in the mountains. We are still alive. There are people still alive!"

He threw the paper back, and the shepherd read it. His face changed, and he rode away quickly.

7: Seventy-Two Days 18:01

Within hours the police came, then helicopters came. The helicopters flew to the 14 people still at the crash site. The survivors laughed, and they hugged each other. They fell on their knees and they cried.

They all boarded the rescue helicopters after being lost for 72 days. And from the air, they looked down at their white mountain prison as it got smaller and smaller.

Diego looked down at the white peaks a final time, where his mother and sister would forever stay.

The mountain had taken twenty-nine lives. But sixteen of them lived through the impossible, and walked back into the world with an inspiring story of survival, and the strength of the human heart.

After all the hospitals and all the interviews, Diego sat with his father in their empty house. His father hugged him and cried - for the lost, for the pain, but also for the miracle that his one son had made it home.

It was love that had carried him across those mountains. And love, that had brought him back.