Mary is Our Mother Too (Part 1)

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 19 February 2011)

In last week’s sharing, you heard about Mary being the Mother of Jesus and spiritual mother of the whole human race.  Today, I would like to share with you a true story of survival in the most difficult conditions where a group of young boys experienced that Mary is not only the Mother of God, but also their mother.

On October 13, 1972, a small airplane carrying a rugby team, their friends and families

crashed high in the Andes Mountains. For 72 days and nights, the survivors huddled together, prayed for rescue and kept their faith. This is their story…

The boys, aged 18 – 26, who attended Stella Maris College in Montevideo, Uruguay, loved to play rugby and shared their deep religious faith. Now the team was to play against the national team of Chile, a country 900 miles to the west.

The flight path from Uruguay to Chile includes a dangerous stretch through the Andes Mountains.  (If you can imagine by looking at the map here, the Andes Mountains are here.) Weather conditions are changeable. Wind and blowing snow can make visibility poor.  The pilot would need all of his skill to navigate safely through the mountains.  The Andes Mountains are steep and very high. The sharp peaks pierce the sky like jagged teeth. Nothing grows at this height and in the winter, the temperature plunges to -40 degrees.

As the pilot began his path through the mountains, the airplane developed trouble and as it hit an air pocket, it dropped through the clouds. The right wing hit the mountain and broke off, taking the tail of the plane with it. Then the left wing broke away. This left the body of the plane hurtling down the mountain at top speed and crashed in the deep snow.  Incredibly, 32 of them survived but some were badly injured. 

The weather was below zero degrees, but none of them were dressed for the cold weather and few suitcases with extra clothing could be found.  As night closed in, the 32 survivors huddled together in the broken section of the plane and comforted each other. Many were in severe pain and shock.

The next day, three more people had died during the night.  The team captain, Marcelo, made an inventory of all the food on the plane. It would have to be rationed carefully, in case they were on the mountain for a longer time. The food was not enough for so many people.

Some of the boys took for granted that they would be surely rescued that they helped themselves to the food that Marcelo had been guarding. Upon discovering the missing food, Marcelo was furious. ‘Don’t you realise you’re playing with our lives?’ he pleaded.

Meanwhile, family and friends began to arrive from Uruguay to keep a vigil for their lost loved ones.  They waited, prayed and kept their faith.   A search and rescue mission was set out to search for the airplane day after day. They faced heavy snowfall, howling winds but the force of the Andes was overwhelming, and all search efforts came up empty.

On the eighth day, search parties from Chile, Argentina and Uruguay abandoned their efforts.  This news reached the survivors over the plane’s radio which one of the boys had restored to operation.  The crash victims then realised that if they were to survive, it would have to be on their own.

On the 17^th day, all of a sudden, the crashed plane had been struck by an avalanche. Frantically, those who could breathe and could move began digging for their friends who were buried in the snow.  But, when it was over, eight more lay dead.

At this point, the remaining 16 boys made an important decision.  They decided to hold nightly prayer services in the shell of the plane. Around nine o’clock, when the moon dropped below the mountain, they would stop all talking and one of the boys would begin the Rosary. The nightly prayer sessions became a tremendous source of strength for the boys.  Some boys who were not particularly religious began to experience a remarkable awareness of God’s presence during the prayer sessions.

End of the first installment, next week, you will hear how the boys managed to find their way out and how their testimony gave much credit to God and Mother Mary for helping them survive those 72 days.