Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home
by Nando Parrado
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Author shares harrowing survival tale + photos in TEDx format
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Spoiler:
Nando Parrado says that he and the other 16 survivors of a plane that crashed in the high peaks of the Andes made it because they achieved excellence in all the things that are usually taught to business school students: risk management, leadership, and teamwork, for example. He adds that anything he has achieved in the years since the plane crash is thanks to lessons learned during that experience: live in the present, and the most important things in life are linked to love.
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Author gives in-depth interview about plane crash & aftermath
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Describing himself and the other Uruguayan survivors as “beach boys who had never seen snow,” Nando Parrado reflects on the deadly plane crash. The average age of the group being 18.5, Parrado says their life before was simply “studies, sports, girls,” and that they thought they were immortal. He recalls that it was impossible to feel grief or to cry during the ordeal, even having lost his sister and mother in the crash, because the survival instinct took over and “you cannot stop to suffer.”
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Author speaks about lessons learned during survival + footage
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The author reflects that when you survive a near-death experience as he did, you will come back without something that was dear to you, whether it be a finger, an arm, a friend, or a family member. Another notable thing he lost was his belief that life would go on forever. This taught him to live in the present because the past is gone and the future doesn’t exist. He says the 16 survivors made it because they achieved excellence and had luck; any mistake would have been deadly.
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Nando Parrado describes plane crash & aftermath + vintage photos
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The author describes events so harrowing that they almost seem fictional. In his first year of university, the Uruguayan was studying economics and playing rugby on the national team. He invited his mother and sister to accompany the team on a weekend trip; the plane crashed in the Andes, killing his family on impact. Although the survivors initially had hope of being rescued, they heard on their transistor radio, ten days after the crash, that the search had been called off and that they had all been declared dead.
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Nando Parrado is a motivational speaker, businessman, author, and survivor of the infamous 1972 Andes plane crash. Born on December 9, 1949, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Parrado was a 22-year-old rugby player for the Old Christians Club when the tragic crash occurred. Parrado’s memoir, co-authored with Vince Rause, provides a detailed account of the crash and survival.
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