Alvaro Mangino: Survivor of Andes plane crash that saw passengers become cannibals dies aged 71

Alvaro Mangino Schmid was one of 16 survivors of the 1972 tragedy that became a hit Netflix Oscar-nominated film Society of the Snow in 2023, and previously the film Alive in 1993.

His plane, carrying members of Uruguay's Old Christians rugby team, crash-landed at 3,600 metres in the remote Andes mountains. It took rescuers 72 days to find them and during two months in freezing cold with no other food available, the survivors took to cannibalising the bodies of the passengers who died.

Alvaro, who rarely spoke publicly of the grim experience, died on Saturday, March 29, after failing to recover from a bout of pneumonia. He passed away just a few days before his 72nd birthday.

In the book Snow Society, which inspired the film, Alvaro talked about the decision to eat his fellow passengers saying: "The hardest decision I made in my life."

The Netflix movie's director J.A. Bayona wrote on Instagram on March 29: "In the crash, he fractured his leg and spent 72 days crawling through the snow. However, despite his disability, he will be remembered for never stopping working in the mountains, constantly melting snow to supply water to his colleagues."

After the crash Alvaro moved to Brazil for years but returned to Uruguay where he became a dad of four and worked as an air conditioning engineer.

The survivors of the crash still meet up every year on 22nd December to remember the day they were rescued.

Story: NewsX