Jet crash where CANNIBAL passengers hacked pals with shards of cockpit glass inspires Netflix film ‘Society of the Snow’

THE GRIM story of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes Mountain has been revisited in a harrowing Netflix film.

Society of the Snow brings to life the harsh conditions the survivors had to endure - the pain, the cold, and why they were forced to resort to cannibalism to stay alive.

On October 13, 1972, an inexperienced co-pilot failed to notice that the plane was 43miles away from the city where they were supposed to land.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara initiated the plane's descent, unaware of the fact that they were still flying over the Andes.

As the plane descended it struck a mountain and both the wings were sheared off. What remained of it slid down a glacier at 220mph for 2,379ft before it smashed into ice.

The Uruguayan Air Force Flight had been carrying 45 passengers - 19 members of the Old Christians Club Rugby Union team and their families, friends and fans.

Three crew members and nine passengers died immediately.

Another 17 died from injuries and suffocation due to an avalanche that occurred days later.

After 10 days, the remaining survivors learned from a radio on the plane that the search had been called off.

From the onset, the survivors had very little food. All they had consisted of eight chocolate bars, three small jars of jam, a tin of mussels, a tin of almonds and several bottles of wine.

Their small stock dwindled quickly and they resorted to eating parts of the airplane, such as the leather on the outside of the seats.

This made them sicker.

It was then that they realised they had an agonising decision to make.

Survivor Roberto Canessa was only 19 when he suggested that they eat their friends' remains in order to survive.

In his book, I Had to Survive, Roberto described: "We knew the answer, but it was too terrible to contemplate.

"For a long time, we agonized. I went out in the snow and prayed to God for guidance. Without His consent, I felt I would be violating the memory of my friends; that I would be stealing their souls.

"We wondered whether we were going mad even to contemplate such a thing. Had we turned into brute savages? Or was this the only sane thing to do? Truly, we were pushing the limits of our fear."

Last year, 16 of the survivors came together to mark the 50th anniversary of the catastrophic crash.