New Netflix film 'Society of Snow' details 1972 plane crash where passengers were forced to turn to CANNIBALISM as movie was filmed at exact site of harrowing survival tale

The harrowing tale of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes Mountains where survivors had to resort to cannibalism will be detailed in an upcoming Netflix movie - one filmed at the site of the horrifying ordeal.

In October 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 departed from Montevideo, Uruguay, heading to Santiago, Chile, crashed into a mountain, sliced off both wings and tail before it slid down a glacier and crashed into snow.  

Now, a new Netflix film, 'Society of Snow,' is set to release on January 4 and will tell the harrowing story as it was shot at the actual site of the crash, 12,000 feet above sea level.

In 1972, 33 passengers initially survived the crash, but had to resort to eating loved ones to stay alive waiting for rescue. Two passengers, Robert Canessa and his friend Nando Parrado, hiked through the mountain for days to get help. 

The two have detailed the ordeal numerous times, including ahead of the new Netflix movie. They recalled the moment they decided to leave the site in search of rescue. 

'We may be walking to our deaths, but I would rather walk to meet my death than wait for it to come to me,' Parrado told Canessa at the peak. 

'You and I are friends, Nando. We have been through so much. Now, let's go die together,' Canessa replied. 

On top of the bitterly cold conditions with makeshift gear to keep them warm. When they found help and rescuers reached the crash, only 16 passengers remained alive.

 In his book 'I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives,' Canessa detailed the ominous decision he had to make at the age of 19 to resort to cannibalism. 

He said that he and other survivors would cut flesh from the dead bodies 'amid much torment and soul-searching' as their hopes of being rescued shrunk drastically. 

'We laid the thin strips of frozen flesh aside on a piece of sheet metal. Each of us finally consumed our piece when we could bear to,' he wrote. 

Canessa, now 70 years old, is a Uruguayan pediatric cardiologist who takes part in annual reunions with other survivors from the crash and their families.

He recently told the Today Show about deciding to eat other people:  'I thought if I would die, I would be proud that my body would be used for someone else.'

A previous adaptation of the notorious crash was depicted in the 1993 movie 'Alive,' but unlike that film, the newest Netflix version was shot exactly where it all happened. 

'We were shooting 12,000 feet, exactly in the same place where the plane crashed, at the same time of year,' director J.A. Bayona told Today.

Canessa told People it was hard for him to watch the latest film as he was 'immersed in that place again.' 

'I was back to the fuselage,' Canessa added. 

At the time of the crash, the surviving passengers created a makeshift shelter in the fuselage or main structure of the crashed plane. 

They crammed themselves into right spaces of about eight to nine feet and removed broken seats to use them to cover the open end of what was left of the plane, Canessa described in his book. 

During the first night, five passengers died from the freezing snowy mountaintop's conditions and the remaining survivors were left with little to no food. 

According to Fox News, all the passengers had to eat was eight chocolate bars, a tin of mussels, a few dates, a tin of almonds, three tiny jars of jams, dried plums, candy and several bottles of wine. 

In a Parrado's biograph, he revealed he ate one chocolate-covered almond over the course of three days. There was also no vegetation life or animals available to hunt for food supply.

The survivors soon found out that rescue efforts to find them was called off in the first week after they managed to get a small transistor radio in the disheveled plane to work.  

In the first 17 days of the long-awaited rescue, an avalanche hit the already destroyed plane and claimed the lives of eight more passengers. 

Those who survived the avalanche were trapped inside a small space with the dead bodies for three days. Canessa revealed it was during this time that they resorted to eating the deceased passengers. 

Canessa and Parrado then decided to climb more than 4,00 feet to a higher peek for three days in an attempt to get help. 

With barely any protection from the chilling weather, they ran into a group of Chilean shepherds who helped them get rescued by the Chilean Air Force. 

'I was given a chance for a second life,' Canessa told a German outlet in 2022. 'I thought I was going to die because you most certainly die in an airplane that flies straight into a mountain. I never would have thought I could save myself, and so the motto "72 days. As long as there is life and hope, maybe there will be a tomorrow!" became the driving force in my life.'