On Oct. 13, 1972, a plane carrying 45 passengers, including the Old Christians Uruguayan rugby team, crashed in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. The Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 survivors believed they would be rescued within days. They could not have predicted how long their ordeal would last or that they would become famous as the "Andes mountains cannibals." Of the 27 passengers who survived the impact, only 16 returned home alive when they were finally rescued over two months after the crash. In order to survive on an Andes mountainside, the rugby team crash survivors were forced to consume the flesh of fellow passengers who passed away. Their plight has been referred to as the "miracle of the Andes".