To Play The Game: A History of Flight 571: by John Guiver
A comprehensive history of the 1972 Andes Flight disaster.
‘A perfect complement to my 1974 book Alive.’ Piers Paul Read
13th October 1972. A Uruguayan Air Force plane, commissioned for a civilian flight, crashes in the Andes. Among the forty passengers are a first-division rugby team, accompanied by family and friends. Hindered by treacherous conditions, the search and rescue efforts cannot locate the wreckage, and are abandoned after eight days.
Ten weeks later, two unkempt boys are spotted by a muleteer high in the Chilean foothills. One throws a note to him, across a mountain torrent: I come from a plane that fell in the mountains… In the plane there are still fourteen injured people…
Drawing on extensive original research, the author sheds new light on this extraordinary story from a perspective of fifty years, expanding on events before, during, and after the ordeal. His retelling is enriched by the accounts of those who didn’t return from the mountain, related through the eyes of their families, bringing much-needed balance to a story which has largely focused on the survivors.
John Guiver’s comprehensive account, which includes an in-depth look at the world from which the passengers came and an analysis of the possible causes of the accident, is a fundamental contribution to the history of this famous event.
