Читать книгу The Zombie Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 16

There can surely be very few people who do not find the notion of cannibalism to be wholly abhorrent. It is one of the world’s major, long lasting taboos—unless, that is, you happen to be one of the undead, in which case it is practically de rigueur to chow down on the human race. It must be said, however, that none of us can say with complete and utter certainty that, when faced with a grim death by starvation, we would not resort to devouring the newly deceased. In all likelihood we would not do so eagerly, but, as a necessity, it might not be out of the question. Just such a situation occurred in 1972, high in the mountains of the Andes, when, after a plane crash, the survivors were forced to do the unthinkable and feed on the dead.

The date was October 13, 1972, and a Montevideo, Uruguay-based rugby team—the Old Christians Club—was flying to Chile, where they were to play an opposing team. The game, however, was destined never to take place. The crew of the aircraft, a Fairchild FH227D, made a fatal error during their descent towards the city of Curico, Chile. Powerful headwinds slowed the plane to a significant degree, leading the crew to become completely confused as to their exact location. Coupled with the fact that, at the time, the vast Andes was covered by dense clouds, the crew became further disoriented and began their descent while still travelling through the mountains, rather than after they had exited the huge range. The result was just about as disastrous as conceivably possible: the plane clipped two peaks, both wings were violently severed, an entire section of the remaining fuselage was torn open, and the remains of the plane slammed into a peak now called the Glacier of Tears.

Carnage, chaos, and death reigned supreme: five people lost their lives when they were sucked out of the gaping hole as the plane made its tumultuous descent. Four died in the crash itself. Three failed to last the first night. One passed away the following day. Another one lingered on for about a week before finally dying. Seven were tragically killed during a powerful avalanche. And three more died as the weeks progressed. Incredibly, however, sixteen managed to survive against the harshness of Mother Nature and the effects of the impact.

There were, however, two major problems facing those that were still clinging on to life. First, since the crew had become severely confused concerning their location prior to the crash, there was major uncertainty on the part of search and rescue teams regarding the actual location of the impact site. As a result, the search was abandoned after eleven days. The survivors were now all alone. And second, there was even worse news: since the flight was not a long one, provisions on the plane had been kept to an absolute minimum. A few snacks and candy bars aside, there was nothing to eat. Fortunately, snow could easily be converted into water, which prevented death from dehydration. It wasn’t very long, however, before the survivors of the crash weren’t just hungry—they were starving. There was only one possible way for them to keep going, if they chose to take it, that is. It involved breaking that aforementioned taboo.

One of the survivors, Nando Parrado, commented later that even though the hunger of those still alive grew to voracious levels, they did all they could to stave off the near-inevitable, such as even contemplating eating the cushioning material contained in the seats of the aircraft. It was all to no avail, however. Finally, the decision that nobody wanted to take was taken: since the cold weather, the ice, and the snow combined had prevented decomposition from setting in, the dead would serve as food. Like it or not, there was no choice if the group was to survive longer than a few more days. It was a decidedly grim task, since most of the dead had been very good friends of the survivors. Resorting to cannibalism worked very well, however: by feeding on the meat of the dead, the sixteen that were still alive managed to keep starvation at bay until they were finally rescued on December 23, some two months after the terrible accident that led man to devour man, high on the Andes.