Andes ‘cannibal’ tragedy survivors play tribute match on 50th anniversary of plane crash
Rugby players who survived the Andes plane crash played a tribute match in Montevideo on Saturday (October 15) to mark 50 years since the fateful accident.
Surviving players from the Uruguayan club Old Christians and the Chilean club Old Boys played a friendly match which every year brings together the survivors of the plane crash that left 29 people dead.
Uruguay's president Luis Lacalle Pou attended the tribute match, greeted the former players, and gave a speech to pay tribute to the survivors.
On October 13, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a youth rugby team and their family and friends crashed in the middle of the Andes Mountains.
They were forced to dig up some of their dead colleagues they had buried in the snow nearby and eat them just to survive. The story of the crash – in which just 16 of the 45 passengers survived - was retold in the 1993 movie "Alive".
Reuters
