You survive a plane crash, right in the middle of nowhere —surrounded by mountains, all covered in snow. It is 1972 and you don’t know what to do. There are corpses lying around, which, thanks to the cold aren’t spoiling quickly, so what do you do?
This is the story of Pedro Algorta, 21 at the time, and the men who were with him on the fateful day of the crash in the Andes Mountains, and this is what he said;
“Staying alive was always the main task, for which it was necessary to eat well. But not from a rational decision, rather, from an instinctive imperative. I always had a hand or something in my pocket, and when I could, I would begin to eat, to put something in my mouth, to feel that I was getting nourished.”
This is what happens when you are at the mercy of the elements for 71 days. And as for the remaining 15 people who eventually survived, no one objected. Eating the flesh of the people they had said ‘hi’ to as they boarded was not a great idea. Many of the corpses were their friends.
Pedro documented their experience in his book Into the Mountains: The Extraordinary True Story of Survival in the Andes and Its Aftermath.
Now, here’s the question.
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