Traveling may sometimes be associated with bad memories, as a result of the traveler’s passing through some obstacles and difficulties that make his trip special, but in a negative way, and it crossed my mind to write a story for you about some travelers who went through the most difficult experience that a human being can live, and the reason for writing this story is that I attended A lecture in which one of these travelers spoke about his unforgettable experience. The story of this traveler – Roberto Canesa – occurred 50 years ago, specifically on October 12, 1972, when a group of friends traveled on Flight 571 of the Uruguayan Air Force heading from Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, to Santiago, the capital of Chile. These travelers were the rugby team that was called (Old Christians) with some of their families, and because of the difficult weather, the pilot decided to land in the Argentine city of Mendoza near the foot of the Andes to spend the night, and the next day, despite the bad weather, the crew and the reckless passengers agreed – with confidence and recklessness – to take off.
Here the disaster occurred and the plane broke down and crashed into the edge of a mountain to fall and crash in the snow and 12 people died instantly, followed by 3 colleagues on the first night
This group remained at an altitude of 4 thousand meters and in temperatures as low as 30 degrees Celsius below zero with some food – which ended in the first week – and they used the smashed body of the plane to protect them from wind and snow, and with all fear, horror and despair they heard through their radio that The search for them stopped after 8 days because there was no evidence of their whereabouts
Here the group had to make the difficult decision to eat the meat of their colleagues. And it was – according to Roberto Canesa – one of the most difficult moments they experienced during this crisis, but it was the only decision that might keep them alive, especially since the bodies of the dead were not damaged by the snow.
On October 29, an avalanche buried the remains of the plane in the snow and killed 8 others, thus reducing the number of survivors to 19 people at that time.
In the lecture Roberto Canesa told us that what kept them alive for 72 days was the thought that they would be saved tomorrow.
Roberto Canesa and Fernando Parado left the group and climbed a mountain. After 10 days, they crossed 70 kilometers across the Andes Mountains. They encountered a number of Chilean farmers who called the rescue teams to help them. A helicopter went to transport the survivors in two batches, where 6 people were rescued in the first batch and the next day The remaining 8 followed.
For myself, I lived with Roberto Canesa’s lecture with all my heart and remembered the movie I saw 5 years ago, but I did not feel this dread and fear of travel at the time. Do such stories affect our desire to travel?
#Ali #Youssef #AlSaad #writes #Memories #surface #Andes