Nando Parrado’s story is familiar. You’ve heard it, seen the films (Alive!, and Stranded!), read the books (also Alive!, and Parrado’s own account, Miracle in the Andes), but it bears repeating. It is simply that astonishing. On October 12, 1972, a Fairchild 571 twin-engine turboprop flown by the Uruguayan Air Force and bound for Santiago, Chile, crashed high in the Andes. Thirteen died in the crash, 16 in the weeks that followed, and finally, after two-and-a-half months, Parrado, Roberto Canessa, and Antonio Vizintín set out on an 11-day trek over 18,000-foot peaks and lived to tell the tale. Here, Parrado discusses the spirit of a true survivor. (See photos from NGA writer James Vlahos's first retracing of the Alive! Andes escape route here.) —Ryan Bradley
Your experience was so different from the rest of the survivors because your sister, your mother, your best friend all died in the plane crash…and what really struck me was that not only were you going through all this turmoil, but your father was as well. His entire family was gone.
He was going through some very bad times at home. When I came back, he told me “you know I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t work, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t concentrate” because when you lose all of your family in one second it’s different, you know? I came back and I had to sit with my father alone at a table and look forward and never look back.
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