1972 Andes Plane Crash Survivor Reflects on Group’s Decision to Eat Bodies of Friends Who Died

Mar. 15, 2025

Dr. Roberto Canessa.Photo:PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty

PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty

A survivor of the1972 Andes Mountain plane crashsaid the upcoming Netflix filmSociety of the Snowbrought him back to the horrific ordeal.

“I was immersed in that place again,” Dr. Roberto Canessa toldTodayin an interview published on Thursday. “I was back [in] the fuselage.”

During his interview withToday, Canessa was asked about the moment the group decided they were “going to have to eat” their “loved ones.”

“I thought if I would die, I would be proud that my body would be used for someone else,” Canessa toldTodayof the fateful decision.

Canessa wrote in his book that the survivors cut flesh from the bodies “amid much torment and soul-searching" as their hopes of being rescued diminished. “We laid the thin strips of frozen flesh aside on a piece of sheet metal,” he wrote. “Each of us finally consumed our piece when we could bear to.”

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Canessa and another teammate emerged out of the mountains for help and reached civilization about a week later. “We got in touch with a shepherd," he told PEOPLE in 2016. “He was generous enough to go and search for help for us, [even though] he didn’t know us and no one believed that we were alive. And in this way, a very humble person saved the life of my friends.”

The survivors were rescued 72 days after the crash. “It’s not how you survive but why you survive,” Canessa told PEOPLE while reflecting on how he overcame the trauma. “I remembered very vividly my mother and I went to [visit the mother of] a friend who had died and she was devastated. And my mother told me, ‘If one of my children died, I couldn’t make it through life, I would die of sadness.’ So I had to go back and tell my mother, ‘Don’t cry anymore, I’m alive.’ So I think that was the driving force for me.”

The crash was famously dramatized in the 1993 movieAlive, starringEthan Hawke. According toToday, the latest retelling of the story was shot on the actual crash site, putting the cast and crew in similar conditions as the survivors.

Canessa is now a pediatric cardiologist and has taken part in annual reunions with the other survivors and their families. In the years since the crash, he has drawn lessons from the ordeal. “You shouldn’t wait for your plane to fall to enjoy and be grateful for life," he previously told PEOPLE.

Society of the Snowwill premiere in theaters next month and will begin streaming on Netflix Jan. 4.

source: people.com