‘Miracle in the Andes’ crash survivor dies half century later

Jose Luis Inciarte (C) in 2002 with other survivors of the Andes plane crash (JULIO CASTRO)

Uruguayan Jose Luis Inciarte, one of 16 survivors of a 1972 Andean plane crash immortalized in the film “Alive,” died in his home city of Montevideo Thursday aged 75, a friend told AFP.

Inciarte, known fondly as “Coche,” was part of an amateur Uruguayan rugby team flying to play a match in Chile, accompanied by family members, when their plane crashed on October 13, 1972.

Thirty-three of the 45 on board survived the initial impact, but only 16 were left after an ordeal of ten weeks on an Andean glacier without food, shelter, or even warm clothes in minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) at an altitude of some 3,500 meters.

The survivers had to resort to eating the flesh of their dead comrades to stay alive.

Rescue finally came after two of the young men — Roberto Canessa and Fernando Parrado —  walked for 10 days into the unknown, hostile terrain, finally spotting people at a river as they were close to their end.

The story of survival became known as the “Miracle in the Andes.”

– ‘Now we are 14’ –

“We lost a friend,” Canessa told AFP Thursday of Inciarte’s death from cancer.

“We already lost Javier (Methol), and now we are 14” left over from the 16 who returned home after the crash, he said.

Methol died in 2015 aged 79, also from cancer.

In 2012, on a trip to Santiago to commemorate the 40-year-anniversary of the accident, Inciarte reflected on the experiences that marked his life in comments to AFP.

“With the passage of time, the anguish, the suffering, the pain of the cold that gnaws at the skin, gave way to hope, to a story of survival, solidarity and friendship,” he said at the time.

Inciarte had gone on to become an agricultural entrepreneur.

Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona, who made a film about the Andes survival story — entitled “Society of the Snow” and due to premier in Venice in September — bid farewell to his “friend” Inciarte on Instagram.

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“Today Jose Luis ‘Coche’ Inciarte left for good, after life gifted him an extension of more than fifty years. As far as I know, he used it well,” Bayona wrote.

“A life like his is worth four of ours!”

Author Pablo Vierci, who wrote the book the new movie is based on, told AFP Inciarte had been a “good man” who on the mountain “propped up” those whose spirits were failing.

“He gave the impression that he was not afraid of death,” said Vierci.

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