Talk:Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

Dubious formulations and possibly imprecise map?

1) The page says "A flood of international reporters hiked several kilometers from Puente Negro to Termas del Flaco." This sounds wrong. It is more than 50 km from Termas del Flaco to Puente Negro, I doubt the reporters hiked it and if they did, it was not several kilometres. The article says that the arriero who found them took a truck from Termas del Flaco to Puente Negro, which indicates that there was already a road there at the time of the crash. So I assume the reporters would take a car. Maybe what they did was that they hiked up to Los Maitenes? Termas del Flaco would have been extremenly small at that time, even now it is only maybe 50 houses and I am not sure it would have made sense for them to go there instead of to San Fernando.

2) This statement:

"However, according to Juan Ulloa, an Argentinian guide who hiked Canessa and Parrado's route multiple times, they ultimately made the right choice despite the longer distance. Ulloa speculates that both men would have died had they pivoted east, due to the increased number of obstacles, which included abysses." It is a bit weird. First, to say he "hiked" their route is weird. The route they did is a very steep climb - they had to make steps into a 100m almost vertical wall. Not sure "hike" is the right word. The guide indeed claims to have done both routes, also here: [1]. I wonder if they get special permision to cross the border there, but I guess we must believe him. However, when the text says there are "abysses", I think that is wrong translation from Spanish on the BBC site that is linked from the wiki page. In the other page which I found, it more sounds like there would have been snow bridges over side canyons in the valley. The way Andes work around that area is that you have a main valley that is not that steep, but to its side, sidestreams cut very steep and sometimes almost vertical side cuts that are very difficult to traverse. I guess that is what the guy means. I doubt "abyss" is the right work for that.

3) "They reached the narrow valley that Parrado had seen from the top of the mountain, where they found the source of Río San José." The source of Rio San José is now about 2-3 km upstream from the valley from which they came in. It originates in a glacier and it is possile it receded that much over this time. So it might and might not be correct. However, if they did get to the source, it seems to me they might have then go down on the north side of Rio San José. The whole subplot with meeting the arrieros on the other side of the river then makes more sense (and the valey would have been easier to go down that way then, before the road up was built). In that case, their path here: [File:Volcan-tinguiririca.svg] is wrongly on the southern side of the river.

Drewdrewdrewdrew (talk) 16:26, 1 April 2025 (UTC)

needs attention

I want this get fixed up to be eligible for included in the Selected Anniversaries this year which is the 40th anniversary

"Crash" - Ground Collision Alarm

It is not believable, that a ground collision alarm sounded just before the crash. Terrain awareness and warning systems initial development took place in 1971 or right after that. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrain_awareness_and_warning_system It is much more plausible, that it was a stall alarm, or some other alarm sounding.

In the article, this fact is attributed to source [4], which should be checked.

Trivia section needs rewrite

Re: MOS:TRIVIA, this section needs a re-write, as well as sources for WP:RS.-Classicfilms (talk) 20:22, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

References in popular culture

In addition, the event has received mentions in many other works.

Books

• Stephen King (1977). The Shining. King references the crash in his book set at an isolated hotel in the Rocky Mountains during its harsh winter months. Wendy develops a fear of the hotel's elevator, specifically of being trapped inside with no one else around to save them, and Jack Torrance speculates that "she could see them growing thinner and weaker, starving to death. Or perhaps dining on each other the way those rugby players had."

Television

• The incident is mentioned in the 1978 survival film Cyclone.
• The The Simpsons episode "Fear of Flying" features Homer Simpson renting the 1993 film adaptation, as well as Hero and Fearless.
• The incident is mentioned in a 2011 horror film The Divide.
• The Rick and Morty episode "The Vat of Acid Episode" parodies the events of the crash and the subsequent survival efforts. The number 571 can be seen on the side of the plane.
• In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Tickled Pinky", Rocko is listing several dangerous activities he and Pinky have engaged in. The last item on the list is "flying over The Andes with a Brazilian soccer team".
• The incident was the basis for the Showtime series Yellowjackets.
• The 2021 Bengali web series Robindronath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni loosely portrays the incident.
• The incident is mentioned in the HBO limited series Station Eleven. Episode 7, "Goodbye My Damaged Home".
• The incident is mentioned in the Psych episode "High Top Fade-Out."

Music

• Thomas Dolby's debut LP, The Golden Age of Wireless, contained the instrumental "The Wreck of the Fairchild", loosely based on the incident. This was excised from the first US release but restored on the 2009 remastered collector's edition CD.
• Miracle in the Andes, composed and created by musician Adam Young, is a musical score comprising 10 tracks that tell the story of the Andes flight disaster through song.
• Punk band GBH included a graphic account of the experiences of the passengers on the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in their song "Passenger on the Menu" (1982).
• The event is referenced in the song "The Plot Sickens", by the American metalcore band Ice Nine Kills, which appears on their 2015 album Every Trick in the Book.
• There is a song titled "Snowcapped Andes Crash" in Melody's Echo Chamber's self-titled 2012 album.

Classicfilms (talk) 20:22, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Elevation of the wreckage/fuselage?

As of 2024-07-13, the article says the fuselage came to rest at "3,570 metres (11,710 ft)", and the nearest citation is several sentences later. The citation is Claudio Caputti (2012), which actually gives a different elevation/altitude for the fuselage, it says "3675 mts snm", i.e. 3,675 metros (meters) sobre el nivel del mar (snm). It gives this number twice. A December 1972 NYT article also seems to use this slightly higher number. The source for Caputti and the NYT seem to be the Argentine military, but it's not entirely clear. I can't actually find a reliable source saying "3,570 meters", but this figure is repeated very frequently on the internet without a source cited. I'm tempted to change the altitude to match the only citation on that paragraph, but I'm reluctant because the lower number is more prevalent across the web. Fluoborate (talk) 21:14, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

This article already references an article "NG (National Geographic) Expedition I" by Peña and Vlahos that seems to have taken place in 2005. They started with maps from survivors and Chilean and Argentine authorities, then they actually explored the route. They implicitly brought along a GPS device, and they report the elevations along the way. They found the fuselage at 12,020 feet, which is 3,664 meters. This is quite close to the other reported altitude.

The citation for NG Expedition I is a mess, I should add the cite-web template. This is a note to myself or any other editor if I don't get around to it. Fluoborate (talk) 22:42, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

Nando Parrado's book says "12,000 feet", so I'm going to start editing the article in places where it 100% does not cite the altitude in the text, or where the citation doesn't match the figure in this article. Fluoborate (talk) 13:31, 20 July 2024 (UTC)

Descent data

To my knowledge descent data ("After crossing the ridge, they descended 1,425 metres (4,676 ft) over ten days..) is incorrect. Mount Seler is about 4600 meters high, as stated, while Los Maitenes is about 1500 metres (1425?) above the sea if i remember correctly, so they descended about 3000 metres. Maybe the correct statement is "they descended TO 1425 metres over ten days..well 5/6 days actually) 185.38.254.21 (talk) 07:21, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

Also, the distance is suspicious. From the crash site to Los Maitenes, which is here: 34.7949489S, 70.4729497W, via the San José valley and Paso Las Lagrimas/Mount Seler is slightly over 20 km. I understand they did not go in a straight line but 53.9 km is too precise and to large. Drewdrewdrewdrew (talk) 16:21, 1 April 2025 (UTC)