From The Vault 🔐 — normally a member-only episode, unlocked this month for everyone.

In 1972, a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed high in the Andes. Stranded in freezing mountains, the young survivors faced hunger, avalanches, and a terrible moral choice.

It would become one of history’s greatest survival stories.

1972 Andes plane crash of Uruguayan rugby team
Navigation error; early descent; crash into mountain
Survivors shelter in plane body; bitter cold at night
Student doctors treat injuries with improvised tools
Melting snow for water; radio says search is cancelled
Starvation leads to agreement to eat the dead
Deadly avalanche buries shelter; more survivors die
Tail of plane found; batteries fail; sleeping bag created
Parrado and Canessa walk west; find help by note
Helicopter rescue; 16 survive; public debate and aftermath

Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/flight-571

🔓 And if you’d like to unlock our entire catalogue (550+ episodes), along with interactive transcripts, instant translations, and study packs, check out membership at https://bit.ly/FromTheVault2025

[From The Vault 🔐] Flight 571: Survival in the Andes