VANISHINGS: Lost In The Andes
About The Programme
In 1972, a group of Uruguayan rugby players, their friends and families left on a Fairchild FH-227 twin turbo-prop airplane for Chile from Uruguay. The route would take them straight over the Andes mountain range, notorious for its unpredictable air currents and poor weather conditions.
The plane crashed into the snow-covered mountainside, killing 13 of the 45 passengers onboard the aircraft. The outside world thought that all 45 people on board had disappeared.
Without any provisions, those left alive resorted to devouring the dead. Those who refused to eat the human flesh died of starvation. After 70 days in the mountains, 16 survivors were rescued and taken home. This is their story.
Cannibalism
Cannibalism, one of the last taboos, has been well documented for centuries. Sometimes the motivation for this frowned-upon deed may be ritualistic or an act of aggression.
Survival cannibalism made headlines after the 1973 Andes air crash. Sixteen Catholics had stayed alive by eating those who had died.
The Vatican decreed that, although those who had chosen to starve were not guilty of the sin of suicide, those who practised cannibalism had not sinned either.
Carlos Paez, one of the survivors explained how he coped with the decision to turn cannibal. “We ate human flesh to survive... When you die your soul leaves and what remains is the body.”
The turning point came when Paez and his companions knew the search for them had been abandoned. “We didn’t exist any more in the world, we had to take a determination and we didn’t have anything to eat. That’s the reality.”
Modern Day Phenomenon
One of the most recent cases of cannibalism was in 2004, when Armin Miewes killed and ate his willing victim, Bernd-Juergen Brandes.
In his trial, Miewes said that by eating Brandes’ body parts - including his penis – the cannibal claimed he was acquiring his victim’s spirit and skills. Other cannibals, such as Edward Gein in the 1950s, said that eating human flesh gave him heightened sexual pleasure.
Mental illness could well be linked to cannibalism as an explanation for this horrendous act, but interestingly, Miewes was not diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychiatrists found him mentally sound to stand trial.
During times of war, cannibalism has often been documented. In 2003, the United Nations Security Council strongly condemned acts of cannibalism by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Witnesses told of stories about hearts and organs cut out of victims and given to their families to eat.