Museo Andes 1972

The Andes 1972 Museum in Montevideo honors the victims and survivors of the 1972 Andes flight disaster, showcasing personal artifacts, documents, and photographs.

Planning your visit

On 13 October 1972 an aircraft carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes. Of 45 people aboard, 16 survived 72 days at 3,600 metres in freezing conditions, enduring an avalanche that killed several more, and ultimately surviving by eating the bodies of the dead — a decision the survivors discussed openly and defended, and which the Catholic Church did not condemn. Two of them walked out across the mountains over ten days to bring rescue.

The museum in Montevideo, created with the survivors' cooperation, holds personal artefacts recovered from the site, fragments of the fuselage, clothing, letters, documents and photographs, alongside the full narrative of the crash, the search that was called off, the survival and the rescue.

It is handled with restraint and with respect for the dead, and survivors occasionally visit.

The story is known internationally through books and films, but the objects give it a different weight.

Bookable options are entry tickets. Current availability is listed below.