INTERVIEW ROBERTO CANESSAIn 1972 a Uruguayan rugby team's aircraft crashed in the Andes, writes Gavin Cummiskey
They were just a young Uruguayan rugby team on tour but 36 years later the survivors of Air Force flight 571 have evolved into a symbol of modern day endurance.
A collection of middle-class boys moulded into men by Irish Christian Brothers at Stella Maris College in Montevideo, the feeder school for Old Christians RFC, who are back on tour next week playing Lansdowne and Skerries.
One of the survivors from the Andes plane crash on Friday, October 13th, 1972, will be with them. Team doctor Francisco Nicola died on impact but 19-year-old medical student Roberto Canessa was one of the few unscathed. He instinctively began tending to the wounded, moving rapidly from one team-mate to another with no time to consider the desperate surroundings.
Dr Canessa, now a renowned paediatric cardiologist, was responsible for saving many lives after the Fairchild aircraft crashed into a glacier on the Chile/Argentina border.
Canessa also advocated eating human flesh after 10 days of meagre rationing of chocolate. It became a simple matter of survival. They required the protein of the corpses and his medical opinion drove this point home.
The issue of anthropophagy has been widely discussed but the Catholic Church in Uruguay immediately deemed it not to be a sin. Nor have family members of the deceased spoken against the desperate measures taken by those isolated on the mountain. Canessa, like most of his teammates, still lives among them in the affluent Montevideo suburb of Carrasco.
After eventually fixing the radio, they learned the rescue mission had been abandoned. They were apparently doomed. But Canessa and Nando Parrado refused to accept such a fate.
The two young team-mates eventually breached the longest exposed mountain range on the planet after a heroic 10-day trek. It was their partnership that saved the remaining 14, stranded, many too weak to move, for 72 days. Twenty-nine died; their remains are buried near the crash site.
These experiences were recorded in Piers Paul Reid's 1974 novel Alive - the Story of the Andes Survivors and the 1993 film of the same title. Canessa is compiling a book on the reaction to his lecture series around the world.
In 2006 Parrado released his own, well-received, version of events, which includes in-depth character sketches of individual interactions on the mountain.
Canessa features heavily and his "complex" character is not always painted in a positive light by his old friend: "The son of a renowned cardiologist in Montevideo, he was brilliant, self-confident, egotistical and interested in following no one's rule but his own" is one example from this revealing account.
Parrado also notes the deep respect he still holds for Canessa: his courage and how he considers him a brother after they achieved what initially seemed an impossible mission.
"I think if you write a book about yourself and someone who is a friend you wouldn't put the defects of your friend in the book. I thought that was not very loyal from him. I regret that he has done that," said Dr Canessa last Monday afternoon.
"But that's life. The good thing about the story is it is real. It is an experiment about human behaviour, human limitations, and friction between people that are successful is a cost of life. There were human relations; it is part of living together."
Canessa may be angered by the personal nature of Parrado's book but the bond between these men is not easily broken.
"It was tough for Nando. When we came out of the mountains we all went home and everything was a joy. When he went back to his house, his picture was on the fireplace beside (that of) his mother and his sister."
Xenia Parrado died in the crash, while Nando's sister Susy lived for just eight days after it. Parrado himself only awoke from a coma after three days.
"He couldn't get out of the mountain. He couldn't come back home so the more I live the less I judge. I'm more of a spectator."
Canessa was considered the most "intelligent and ingenious" of the group. It was his idea to use the plane-seat covers as blankets. He constructed hammocks for those with broken legs. He took responsibility for cutting into human flesh.
But on the 16th night another tragedy befell the group. As they slept in the fuselage an avalanche poured off the mountain killing eight, including the team captain and de facto leader, Marcelo Perez, and the only remaining woman, Lilianna Methol.
It also buried the bodies. Three days later, as they again neared starvation point, they were forced to use flesh from the recently deceased. Before this there had been no identification of the dead.
"Yes, it was the most difficult period. We had reorganised and were developing our survival society. We were coming back from a disaster and then the fuselage, our home, became a mortal trap. The avalanche is like when you feel you cannot do any more. You are done, finished and need help and then someone begins kicking you on the floor. It is human limits. I mean, what else can happen here? Have we been such bad people in life that God allows us to suffer so much?"
This is why General Motors, Harvard University, Coca-Cola, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), National Geographic and HSBC have invited Dr Canessa to address them.
The seminars have become a regular feature only in the past six years; his medical career was till then a priority. "When I was young someone came to me and said you are famous for the Andes but not for medicine." This has been corrected with national recognition.
There was even a brief move into politics when he contested the 1994 Uruguayan presidential election. It was more to make a point on certain issues. "I learn that going into politics is like boxing; you cannot be elected if you are not willing to punch your opponent but it was an enjoyable experience."
On returning from the Andes he married his girlfriend Lara and they had two sons and a daughter together. His eldest, Eladio, played rugby against Leinster's Felipe Contepomi in school.
Now Canessa takes time away from medicine to provide a reflective opinion on his unique experience. This month it is Dublin, Rome for a television show and then on to Paris for a film festival.
"I tell people what happened. You are a normal person in a plane crash. We get organised, we run out of food and then people are very keen to know what happened after. They look at it from a perspective from outside the mountain. If you are there and feel you are going to die of the cold, you are scared.
"Some of the people say, 'Oh, you are the ones who were saved because you used the dead bodies of your friends.' As if we took their dead bodies and we were out of the mountain. No, we were in the same place. We only bought some time."
Andes Timeline
October 12th 1972:Leave Carrasco airport but pilots abandon trip to Santiago because of weather. Stop in Mendoza, Argentina, for night.
October 13th:Leave Mendoza at 2.18pm but pilot error going through Planchon Pass sees Fairchild F227 crash into glacier in High Andes on Chile/Argentina border. 12 die immediately, five the next day.
October 20th:Susy Parrado (sister of Nando) dies from injuries.
October 23rd:With food supplies running out, decision made to eat flesh of deceased.
October 24th:Survivor Roy Harley, listening on transistor radio, hears that the rescue mission by three separate countries has been cancelled.
October 29th:Late-night avalanche kills eight, including Old Christians captain and tour organiser Marcelo Perez and only remaining woman, Lilianna Methol.
December 12th:Roberto Canessa, Nando Parrado and Antonio Vizintin begin to attempt to chart a path through mountains.
December 15th:Vizintin sent back as enormous difficulty of trek is realised. Not enough rations for three men.
December 21st:Canessa sees Chilean farmer Sergio Catalan, who tells him he will return next day.
December 22nd:Helicopters and media arrive. Parrado takes rescue mission back to crash site. Injured and weakest survivors evacuated.
December 23rd:Remaining survivors are rescued.
December 28th:Because of leaked photos of crash site and widespread media speculation, survivors hold press conference in Stella Maris College to explain events of 72 days in Andes.
Dr Roberto Canessa will be speaking at a lunch in Croke Park next Wednesday. The cost is €125 per person or €1,000 for a table of eight. To make a reservation contact Jacinta O'Rourke on 086-8364572 or jacinta@02mail.ie. Monies raised are being used to fund the Old Christians rugby tour, with a donation also going to the Uruguayan rugby injury fund.
