How many days did the survivors of the miracle in the Andes wait to be rescued in 1972?

The crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 occurred on Friday, October 13, 1972, when the Fairchild FH-227D, a charter flight that had departed the day before from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashed in the Andes Mountains. The plane crash and subsequent survival became known as the Tragedy of the Andes and the Miracle of the Andes, respectively.

The aircraft was carrying five crew members and 40 passengers, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby team, along with some family members, supporters, and friends. Three crew members and ten passengers died immediately. During the first night, four people died due to the freezing temperatures and their serious injuries. In the following weeks, twelve more died—eight due to an avalanche.

The sixteen survivors suffered extreme hardships—including frostbite, thirst, and hunger—which led them to resort to cannibalism. When the weather improved with the approach of the southern hemisphere summer, on December 12, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa climbed a mountain peak at 4,650 m above sea level without equipment and walked toward Chile, where they met the muleteer Sergio Catalán, who facilitated their rescue on December 21 after traveling some 38 km. On December 23, 1972, 72 days after the accident, the last of the sixteen survivors who had remained in the fuselage was rescued.