The plane struck a mountain ridge, losing both wings and the tail cone; three of the five crew members and nine passengers died immediately, while Mangino suffered a broken leg.

Parrado, 56, is perhaps the best-known of the 16 survivors of the crash of a Uruguayan Air Force plane in the Andes Mountains in October 1972 as it was carrying his rugby team to a match in Chile.

"In these kinds of situations it's not how you survive but why you survive," Roberto Canessa tells PEOPLE of surviving the 1972 Andes flight disaster Just a few days after their plane crashed into ...

1972 Andes Plane Crash Survivor Reflects on Group’s Decision to Eat Bodies of Friends Who Died The plane left from Knoxville Downtown Island Airport about an hour and 15 minutes before the crash ...

Mangino, who has died on the eve of his 72nd birthday, was a survivor of what became known as both “the tragedy of the Andes” and “the miracle of the Andes”, when a plane carrying members of a ...