Andes crash survivors mark anniversary with match

Surviving members of an Uruguayan rugby team have played a match postponed four decades ago when their plane crashed in the Andes, stranding them for 72 days in the cordillera and forcing them to eat human flesh to stay alive.

The Old Christians Club squared off on Saturday in Santiago in a game that ended in a draw against the Old Grangonian Club, the former Chilean rugby team they were supposed to play back when their flight went down. Their story became the basis of a best-selling book and Hollywood film.

“At about this time we were falling in the Andes. Today, we’re here to win a game,” crash survivor Pedro Algorta, 61, said as he prepared to walk onto the playing field surrounded by the jagged mountains that trapped the group.