Every breath I take, it’s like a miracle… I shouldn’t be here

instrument panel which had been embedded in the pilot’s chest. The snow has melted around the tail leaving it on a pedestal of ice, making it very unstable, but it is a clear sign that the weather is now changing for the better.

Roy has brought his transistor radio and when he connects it to a makeshift antenna the tail section fills with music.

A news bulletin announces that the Uruguayan Air Force is sending a plane to resume the search. Roberto arranges suitcases in the shape of a large cross so the tail section can be seen from the air. Meanwhile, back at the fuselage, the others are running short of food so decide to eat body parts that they had so far left untouched, including intestines and brains.

November 30

ROY, Tintin, Nando and Roberto return to the fuselage. Roberto looks at the carcasses and skulls lying in the snow and reckons that they need to tidy the camp before they are rescued. They have brought with them a lifesaving discovery – insulating fabric from the tail section’s heating system, which will make a much more efficient sleeping bag.

As Tintin tells them: ‘This is going to allow us to spend a night outside,’ meaning that an expedition party can now journey for days, surely enough time for them to find help. Labouring under the co-pilot’s assertion that civilisation is only a couple of days’ walk away, they start to draw up plans for a last-ditch escape west to Chile. Nando, who is still desperate to leave and unconvinced a plane will spot them, said in his book, Miracle In The Andes, that he knew that as soon as he stepped out of the fuselage, he wasn’t coming back. ‘This is a kamikaze expedition.’

December 12

TODAY is their 61st day in the Andes. The escape party consisting of Roberto, Tintin and Nando say their farewells to the 13 staying behind. Numa, who had been a member of the first escape attempt, had died the day before.

Nando imagines him taking his place alongside the ghosts of the 29 who have died. He says to teammate Carlitos Rodriguez: ‘If you run out of food, I want you to use my mother and Susy.’ Carlitos is silent and then says: ‘Only as a last resort.’

December 14

THE three are making slow but steady progress through the mountains. Each night they huddle together in the sleeping bag which keeps them warm and dry. They also have with them ‘meat’ wrapped in socks, a compass and $600 as a bribe for anyone they encounter who may be hostile. Each man has multiple layers of clothing to keep warm; Nando is wearing Liliana’s woollen slacks, which fit him easily as he has lost so much weight.

When they reach the summit of a 17,000ft mountain, they see dozens more peaks around them and realise to their horror the co-pilot was dreadfully wrong. Roberto thinks, ‘We’re dead.’

Nando sees what he thinks may be a pass through the terrain, but Tintin is too exhausted to hike any further and decides to turn back. Using the suitcase sled to travel downhill, Tintin is back in the camp in an hour.

December 20

ON THE ninth day of their trek, and the 69th since the crash, Nando and Roberto wake up covered in bed-bug bites. Roberto says it is a good sign as it shows they must be near civilisation.

Both are exhausted after covering nearly 40 miles in just ten days and Roberto, who can barely walk, is close to giving up. His skin has a green tinge and he believes it is only a matter of time before his organs start to shut down. Later that afternoon they walk through a herd of cows and Roberto spots a figure on the other side of a river.

‘Nando! I see a man! A man on a horse!’ For a few minutes they lose sight of the stranger, but then they hear a shout over the roar of the river. Nando mimics the movements of an airplane and they both shout desperately: ‘Help us!’ The man, a shepherd named Sergio Catalan, is shouting back, but the only word they catch is: ‘Tomorrow!’

December 21

BEFORE dawn, Nando and Roberto can see that Sergio has lit a large bonfire on the other side of the river by which three men are sitting. One of the men writes a note on a piece of paper, ties it and a pencil to a rock and throws it over the river towards Nando. It says: ‘I’ve sent a man on his way over to you. Tell me what you want.’

Nando scribbles on the other side that they are survivors of a plane crash and have been walking for 10 days. ‘We have no food, we’re weak. When are they coming for us? Please, we can’t even walk. Where are we?’

On the back, using his mother’s lipstick, he adds: ‘When will you come?’ Nando throws the rock back and the man reads the note, gestures that he understands and then pulls some bread from his pocket and throws that to Nando.

He walks back to Roberto and shows him the bread. Roberto says simply: ‘We’re saved.’

Aftermath

THE following day, helicopters guided by Nando, reached the 14 survivors at the fuselage.

The world soon discovered that they had stayed alive by eating their fellow passengers. The Catholic Church announced that they had committed no sin and to the relief of the survivors, many of the families of those who died expressed public support for what they were forced to do at the time.

Shortly after the rescue, a grave was built at the site and the fuselage was doused in petrol and set alight. Every year, on December 22, the survivors meet to mark the anniversary of their rescue. Nando says: ‘Every time I breathe, it’s like a miracle. I shouldn’t be here.’