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Sergio Catalán, the herdsman who helped save Uruguayan rugby players trapped in the Andes in 1972 has passed away at the age of 91. Catalán found two survivors, rugby players from Montevideo’s Old Christians Club, from the 1972 plane accident.
In the photo above, Catalan is with a survivor of the tragedy, Gustavo Zerbino. In marking 47 years since the rescue, Zerbino tweeted:
“Thanks to our great friend, Sergio Catalán, in an example of solidarity he went 120km on a horse to notify authorities that he had found two survivors, today we are alive some 47 years later.”
The plan crash occurred on October 13, 1972 when bad weather saw the pilots taking the wrong route and crashing into the Andes mountains. There were 45 people on board, of whom 32 survived the crash but only 16 would make it home alive.
Help was unable to located the accident which meant that the only way own from the mountains was to walk out alone. Reaching that point required tremendous sacrifice and one of the truly heroic true stories, as captured in Piers Paul Reed’s book ‘Alive’ and the 1993 movie with the same name.
Trapped high up in the Andes, those who were able to stay alive endured 72 days. The rescue was possible thanks to the two survivors whom Catalán found, Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa. The pair hiked out of the mountains to come across Catalán and inform him they were Uruguayan survivors.
Years later Parrado also wrote a book about the accident and his long road home: The Miracle in the Andes.
