A man who survived a plane crash in the Andes by eating the bodies of dead fellow passengers has died at the age of 71. Alvaro Mangino, who was one of 16 passengers who survived the now infamous 1972 plane crash, died on March 29 following a bout of pneumonia. The flight, carrying members of Uruguay's Old Christians rugby team, crash-landed at 3,600 metres in the remote Andes mountains. In their 72 days stranded in the freezing cold the survivors ate what little scraps of food they had before they were inevitably forced to turn to cannibalism by eating the remains of the dead. Despite having a broken leg, Mr Mangino survived the disaster and used what little strength he had to crawl through the icy terrain to melt snow to make water for his fellow passengers. Mr Mangino, who died just days before his 72nd birthday, rarely spoke about his horrific ordeal. In the book 'Snow Society', which inspired the hit Netflix Oscar-nominated film 'Society of the Snow', Alvaro described the decision to eat his fellow passengers as the 'hardest decision I made in my life'. The Netflix movie's director J.A. Bayona wrote on Instagram on March 29: 'In the crash, he fractured his leg and spent 72 days crawling through the snow. 'However, despite his disability, he will be remembered for never stopping working in the mountains, constantly melting snow to supply water to his colleagues.' He added: 'I'm blessed to have known him.' After the crash Alvaro moved to Brazil for years but returned to Uruguay where he became a dad of four and worked as an air conditioning engineer. The Andes flight disaster has become one of the most infamous plane crashes in history mostly because of the horrific conditions the survivors had to endure for over 70 days. In their two months stranded in the freezing Andes, the injured survivors quickly succumbed to their injuries and those who survived had to fashion makeshift shelters from the -30 degrees weather conditions. On top of this, food was scarce with no wildlife to kill and very little food surviving the crash the group were eventually forced to turn to cannibalism. Robert Canessa, a rugby player on board the flight, previously said: 'Our common goal was to survive, but what we lacked was food. We had long since run out of the meager pickings we'd found on the plane, and there was no vegetation or animal life to be found. 'After just a few days, we had the sensation that our own bodies were consuming themselves just to remain alive. Before long we would become too weak to recover from starvation. 'We knew the answer, but the answer was just too terrifying to contemplate.' On day 61 Canessa and two other survivors set off on a desperate expedition to find help. After ten days walking in the wilderness, they encountered a group of people and on day 71 and day 72 the remaining survivors were rescued via helicopter. The survivors of the crash still meet up every year on December 22 to remember the day they were rescued.