The inexperienced co-pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Dante Héctor Lagurara, was at the controls when the accident occurred. He mistakenly believed the aircraft had reached Curicó, where the flight would turn to descend into Pudahuel Airport, but failed to notice that instrument readings indicated he was still 60–70 km (37–43 mi) from the city. As he began to descend, the aircraft struck a mountain, shearing off both the wings and the tail section. The remaining portion of the fuselage slid down a glacier at an estimated 350 km/h (220 mph) and descended about 725 metres (2,379 ft) before crashing into ice and snow.

The flight was carrying 45 passengers and crew, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, along with their families, supporters and friends. Three crew members and nine passengers died immediately; several more died soon afterward due to the frigid temperatures and the severity of their injuries. The wreck was located at an elevation of 3,570 metres (11,710 ft) in the remote Andes of far western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile. Authorities flew over the crash site several times during the following days, searching for the aircraft, but could not see the white fuselage against the snow. Search efforts were canceled after eight days.[1]

During the following 72 days, the survivors suffered extreme hardships, including exposure, starvation and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 13 more passengers. The remaining passengers resorted to cannibalism. As the weather improved with the arrival of late spring, two survivors, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, climbed a 4,650-metre (15,260 ft) mountain peak without gear and hiked for 10 days into Chile to seek help, traveling 61 km (38 miles). On 23 December 1972, two months after the crash, the last of the 16 survivors were rescued. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571

angrymouse

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I made business with a old guy that fixed my chair some years ago and he said his most common business was creating gaming chairs from car seats. If this is a think I can extrapolate that airplane seats are also a thing

OhmsLawn

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I used to work in resale, both estates and in a ~~junk shop~~used furniture boutique. I've never come across an airplane seat, but I've sold everything from church pews to slot machines, even a Lotus Elise one time.

I guarantee that these are someone's bread-and-butter. Somewhere, someone knows a guy who scraps planes in Nevada, and makes a trip out there once or twice a year to load his truck for a couple hundred bucks. I'm out of the game now, but I'll always appreciate the ingenuity of that subculture.