Nine survivors of a plane crash in Chile's freezing southern forests have said they considering eating the dead pilot as they sheltered inside the broken fuselage and tried to stay alive.
A search helicopter spotted the wreckage of the Cessna Caravan last night and found nine of the 10 people on board injured but alive, having survived temperateness of -4 C.
The only fatality was 65-year-old pilot Nelson Bahamondes, who initially survived the impact but slowly bled to death, survivors said.
According to survivor Victor Suazo, a Chilean police officer, the group considered eating the pilot when their food stocks ran out.
"He had a cut on his head, a big wound and he lost lots of blood," Mr Suazo was quoted in UK’s The Guardian newspaper as saying.
"We thought about the pilot, I don't know how to say it ... to feed ourselves from him.
"We thought about this, but some people were not in agreement because the situation was already so extreme."
The plane disappeared on Saturday while on route from Puerto Montt, a port city in southern Chile, to a village in Aysen, a remote tourist destination. The plane's disappearance led to a massive ground and air search.
The plane crash landed in Aysen's thick trees but when the aircraft came to a stop it was close enough to the ground that survivors could exit and enter the wreckage, officials said.
"It was very cold, there was wind, storms and we fought all that by remaining all of us close together," said 29-year-old survivor Miguel Almonacid. "We used our clothes, our bags and fire to get warm. And we prayed a lot."
Almonacid told Santiago's Radio Cooperativa that before he died the pilot told them to use the fuel in the plane to start a fire.
The survivors ate and drank the milk and food Almonacid was carrying for workers at the salmon-processing plant where he works. At one point Almonacid said he thought they "would die inside the plane."
Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said the pilot steered the plane into heavy forest in order to lessen the crash impact. The cause of the accident is still not known.
Aysen Governor Silvia Moreno said the passengers had cold-weather clothing with them and sought shelter inside the wreckage against the freezing temperatures.
"They survived helping each others, sharing the few things and food they carried," she said.
The survivors often heard the engines of passing search aeroplanes and helicopters, but it wasn't until yesterday that they finally saw a helicopter and were able to signal to it for help.
They were near to leaving the site on foot in search of help when they were rescued, Almonacid said.
All the survivors were hurt in the crash, but authorities said none of the injuries were life-threatening. They were flown to Puerto Montt.
The plane belonged to Patagonia Airlines, a small regional airline.
The area where the plane crashed is near the erupting Chaiten volcano. Three of the survivors had been evacuated from the town of Chaiten last month when the volcano first erupted.
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