Religious Moral
Philosophical Studies
The Andes Plane Crash 1972
On Friday 13th October of 1972, an Uruguayan plane, which was carrying 45 passengers to Chile, most of whom were students and rugby players, crashed in the Andes Mountains.
Twelve of the people died in the crash. The survivors not only had to withstand the hunger and the fearful Mountains, but also 30 degree-below-zero temperatures during the night.
They tried to survive with the scarce food reserves they had until being rescued, but they lost their hope when heard that the search had ceased on the radio.
Desperate owing to the lack of food and physically exhausted, they were forced to feed themselves on their death partners to keep on living. Finally fed up with the extremely low temperatures and the avalanche threats, as well as anguished by the continuos deaths of their partners and the bad rescue prospects, two of them decided to cross the huge mountains to reach Chile.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
A chartered flight of 45 people, a rugby team and their family and friends head for Santiago Chile
Friday 13th October, The plane crashes in the Andes killing over a 1/4 of the passengers and seriously injuring others.
Due to temperatures of -30’C and no warm clothes, 5 more passenger die during the first night
Teams from 3 countries search for survivors but after two weeks rescue is called off with no-one believed to be alive.
There is no more food...There is no more time...There is no more hope... Do you eat your dead friends to survive?
Timeline
Click the timeline images about to find out more about the events which took place during the Andes plane crash in 1972. You can read more about it here. This story raises many tragic moral issues:-
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Should the survivors have eaten their friends and family to survive?
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Who is responsible for the disaster?
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Should the rugby club “The Old Christians” have checked the plane and pilot safety?
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Do you think you could like Nando make the decision to walk for help with no choice of turning back?
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Task
Imagine your a journalist in 1972 in Chile. The 16 survivors have just arrived by helicopter from the crash site. You have been tasked to write the front page of the newspaper by your editor. She is looking for some keys things in your article.
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A catchy headline
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A summary of the events/timeline of would took place
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An interview with Nando Parado for an eye witness account.
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Some chilling real Images taken by the survivors
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A map of the planes supposed flight path and actually flight path
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Find out if you think cannibalism took place and whether you would have done the same in that situation.
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What were the moral issues faced by the survivors?
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It must be formatted by you are the production team are on holiday.
