Roberto Canessa: Life Beyond the Crash

On October 13, 1972, a Uruguayan rugby team’s flight took a tragic turn when their plane  collided with a mountain ridge, tearing off both wings and the tail cone. The remaining fuselage then plummeted down a glacier at an estimated speed of 220 mph, descending 2,379 feet before crashing into a mound of ice and snow. What had started as a routine trip became a harrowing survival story that stretched over two months, with the wreckage hidden from search teams. Stranded in brutal conditions with freezing temperatures and no food, the survivors faced impossible choices. In the end, only 16 of the 45 passengers made it out alive, and their shocking ordeal made headlines worldwide—especially when it was revealed that they had survived by resorting to eating the remains of their peers.

At the time, Roberto Canessa was a 19 year old medical student and member of the Old Christians Rugby Union who had hopes of competing in Santiago, Chile, against the Old Boys Club. In just seconds, Canessa “had to change from being a rugby player to a survivor.” When a plane crashes in the center of the mountains in -30 degree weather, there is an incredible human instinct to survive that will work as hard as it can to get itself to safety. As a medical student, Canessa had not only the instinct of survival but the knowledge of what the men needed to do in order to make it out of the Andes. He took charge as one of the leaders, and ended up bringing the remaining survivors to safety when he and his fellow teammate, Nando Parrado, made a ten day trek to Chile until they were able to find a local shepherd who was able to contact the authorities. 

My conversation with Canessa began with a simple request: I asked him to talk about himself. He spoke with pride about his career as a cardiologist in Uruguay, his wife, his three sons, and his seven grandchildren. For the first 15 minutes, he made no mention of the infamous crash—only the life he had built since then. When he finally brought it up, Canessa admitted that he understood why people wanted to hear his survival story, but after decades of retelling it, he found talking about it“boring”—especially after spending months assisting in the making of the Society of the Snow, a recreation of the grueling experience. Rather than rehashing the details of the crash or the brutal conditions, we focused on his mindset—his will to survive and how he was able to move past trauma. It was not the death of strangers that surrounded Canessa; it was his teammates, their families, and his best friends. Canessa remembered the feeling when he saw his peers perishing. “When someone died you were not sorry for him but sorry for yourself because you're the next one in the queue.” How could anyone persevere when they are surrounded by the bodies of people they shared smiles with the day before? For Canessa, his connection to God was incredible and it is one of the things that kept him going. His other motivation was to return to his normal life. Canessa mentioned, “I didn't survive to become famous, I survived to get back to rugby, to medical school, to my girlfriend.” 

Before I spoke to Canessa, I had envisioned writing a story that focused primarily on perseverance through hardship. It seemed natural to frame it that way, given the extraordinary nature of the tragic plane crash he survived. However, after speaking with him and hearing his perspective, I realized that his story is so much more than just that singular, harrowing event. For Canessa, the crash is not the entirety of his life story. Yes, it is a significant chapter, one that has indelibly shaped his journey, but it does not define him as a person. In fact, what struck me most in our conversation was how he has moved beyond the tragedy and refuses to allow it to consume the way he sees himself. Surviving a plane crash that most could never even begin to imagine is no small feat. The true measure of Canessa's strength lies not just in the survival itself but in the grace with which he has carried on. He continues to live a life full of purpose, passion, and growth, living a life with his family while continuing to pursue his passion for medicine. The tragedy, while transformative, does not hold him prisoner.

While hardship and loss are unavoidable parts of life, they do not have to define who we are. We have the power to choose how we respond to life's challenges, and in doing so, we can shape the story we live. Tragedy may alter our course, but it does not have to determine the destination. It is the way we face adversity, heal, and continue moving forward that truly defines us. We are not our worst moments. We are not our failures or our misfortunes. We are the sum of how we rise after we fall, how we find meaning even in the darkest of times, and how we continue to strive for something greater than our struggles. Of course, this does not mean that it isn’t healthy to address our hardship. In fact, this is one of the key ways we learn to move on. For Canessa and the rest of the survivors, it is important to them that they meet every December 22nd (the day they were rescued) in order to honor both those alive and deceased. It is human for us to be affected by our trauma and to have days that are dedicated to healing. Yet, we are creatures that are meant to live, and not die with whatever might have crushed us in our past. Canessa’s journey is proof of that—his life is more than the plane crash, and so is ours.