In October 1972, a plane chartered by the Uruguayan rugby team crashed in to the snow-covered Andes. Many passengers were killed on contact, but several people survived. They only had rations for a short time. When they learned through their transistor radio that the search effort for their plane had been aborted, two team members tried to cross the Andes in search of civilization. A young medical student warned them that if they wanted to survive until help arrived they must eat the flesh of their dead compatriots. When the trekkers who succeeded in reaching Chile returned with help some time later, 16 had been kept alive through cannibalism, and 29 had died from the accident, the avalanche, and the cruelty of the weather.