#1
What do you think of when you hear the word cannibalism? Hannibal Lecter? Silence of the Lambs?
People eating people does sound unreal, and more the stuff movies are made of. But it played a big part in one of the true survival stories that has captivated the world for decades.
In October 1972, a plane carrying members of a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes. Miraculously, some of them survived the plane going down. They were met with icy cold temperatures, snow and avalanches as they clung onto hope that they'd one day find their way back home again. Apart from the tough environmental conditions, the group had no food.
For more than two months, they stayed alive by eating the bodies of those who had already died in the crash.
#2
"You are eating a dead person and the person is your friend and you wonder, 'Should I do this? Or should I let myself die?" said one survivor, Roberto Canessa, who was a 19-year-old medical student at the time of the crash.
"But I have seen how mothers cry when they lose their sons and I didn't want my mother to go through that," he continued. "I realized that when you have a reason for doing something, nothing stops you."
Miraculously, rescue helicopters arrived at the crash site more than 70 days after the accident. But only six of the 14 remaining survivors could be rescued that day, due to bad weather. The other eight were fetched the next day.
#5
#6
In a more recent, but also incredible plane crash survival story, five people survived 36 hours surrounded by alligators in a swamp in the Amazon.
In May this year, a light aircraft carrying a child, three women and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing while flying from Baures to Trinidad over the Beni Department of northeastern Bolivia. The pilot later told local media that it was a "tough landing" and said the plane flipped over when it crashed into the swamp.
#7
#8
#9
The pilot, Pablo Andres Velarde, said the group was left standing on top of the plane as it lay submerged in the water. Velarde told how they were surrounded by "huge alligators" which came a little too close for comfort to the plane.
"They stayed three to four metres away from us, and stayed there all day and night but never got to us," he said.
Velarde believes the alligators didn't come closer because they were put off by the smell of petrol leaking into the water. He adds that he used the flashlight on his phone to keep a close watch on the creatures.
#10
#11
Sky News reports that the group "couldn't drink anything," and all they had to eat was cassava flour that they found in the plane. Thankfully, a fishing boat passed and the pilot used his phone's flashlight to signal for help. They made it out alive and were airlifted to a hospital.
Velarde says they very well might have died had that boat not come when it did. "We were happy because we could not survive another night," he said. "We were very tired. We couldn't stand anymore, because we had to stand so we could keep an eye on the animals."
#13
#14
#16
#17
After k*****g the parents, trail guides, native scouts and all older siblings over the age of 8, they then stole all the children’s and the family belongings, passing them out to other townspeople. The ransoms paid by the federal troops were for food, clothing and shelter allegedly “freely given” to the children, by the caretaker families in town who claimed they saved these kids and hoped to adopt them some day. .
#18
>The following is inspired after listening to George Takei give a lecture on how US Japanese citizens were treated in World War Two. The article tells the story of a group of men, who for the most part, were regarded by the US as being little better than the enemy.
>. . . Perhaps their most amazing battle, happened on the Gothic Line. The Gothic Line formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence in the final stages of World War II along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains during the fighting retreat of the German forces in Italy against the Allied Armies in Italy commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander.
>. . . The men of the 442nd came up with a daring idea. Their commanders realized that while the forward parts of the mountain were heavily defended, the back side of it, a sheer cliff, was not.
>
> A company of the 442nd then, volunteered to climb the rear of the mountain, and to attack the enemy from this point, taking advantage of the fact that the Germans would not be expecting an attack from there.
>
> Late at night, they began the climb. Slowly working their way up the treacherous thousand foot cliff. Not all made it. Many fell to their deaths...but **they did not fall screaming. They fell *silently*.**
>
> These men knew, that if any sound was heard from this area, if any German sentry happened to hear the sound of a man screaming as he fell to his death, then the attack would fail. So they climbed in silence, and they died...in silence.
>
> The men climbed for nearly eight hours, losing close to half their number to falling, before just before daybreak they reached the top of the mountain. Hunkering down they waited for the sun to come up, and then pressed their attack.
>
> The Germans were caught surprised, and that one company managed to not only take the hill, but break the back of the Gothic Line.
>A six month stalemate was broken by the 442nd in roughly 32 minutes of hard fighting.
>When the war ended, the 442nd held the distinction of being the most decorated military unit in U.S. military history.
I can't even imagine the level of discipline and total self-control you'd need to have to not scream as you fell off a mountain to your death.
Also to the survivors, who had to keep on climbing after seeing the risk first-hand by watching their fellow soldiers die. They had to finish the mission or their brothers-in-arms died for nothing.
#19
Then the ice tore the ship to shreds so they had to camp directly on the ice...until it started melting and had to take the lifeboats all the way to Elephant island.
From there, the team leader, Ernest Shackleton took a crew to South Georgia to get some help from whalers there. The problem was that the settlement was on the Eastern shore of the island, and they beached their craft on the West coast. So they made makeshift cleats and pulled off the first crossing of the island (a feat not repeated until 40-ish years later) to reach the nearest whaling station.
There's a great book recounting the expedition. It's amazing how they all made it out alive (just one guy had to be amputated on Elephant island due to frostbite).
#20
