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(WASHINGTON) — Earlier this week, an unknown number of heavily armed soldiers stormed over Ukraine’s north-eastern border with Russia.

At around the same time, Russian media reported explosions inside Belgorod. Russian officials later said Ukrainian artillery was used to fire into Belgorod.

The official version of events from the Ukrainian side is that only Russian nationals, belonging to two far-right paramilitary groups, were involved in the assault.

So far there is no evidence to contradict that claim.

The two paramilitary groups involved are the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion. They are made up of Russian nationals who have been fighting in Ukraine alongside the Ukrainian military since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

It is unclear whether the Ukrainian-backed operation in that region is completely over.

On Thursday, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed that the Ukrainian military was shelling areas inside Belgorod and that Russian air defense had been active in a district of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine.

There have been other reports of explosions and drone attacks in the Russian region.

Eyewitness testimony from local civilians, videos circulating online and images filmed by independent media in Belgorod back some of those reports up.

The Ukrainian-backed far-right paramilitary groups who claimed responsibility for the operation in Belgorod also alleged, without providing details, that their mission was “still ongoing.”

Denis Kapustin, the leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, told reporters that “Phase One” of the operation had ended. He also claimed that “Phase Two” would begin “in a couple of days.”

The Russian authorities took the threat seriously and launched a counterterrorism operation in the border region.

Some local residents were also evacuated from settlements close to the border where the fighting was taking place.

The level of strategic military success achieved by the Ukrainian-backed mission in Belgorod is unclear.

On Wednesday Kapustin claimed his men had taken control of roughly 16 square miles of territory inside Russia.

He also claimed two of his fighters had been killed in the raid. Russian officials said dozens of “terrorists” had been killed.

None of these figures can be independently verified.

Ukraine’s involvement

Publicly, Ukraine has tried to distance itself from the execution of the operation in Belgorod, however, there is mounting evidence that Ukraine was involved.

A commander for the Free Russia Legion, who goes by the military callsign of “Cesar,” told reporters on Wednesday that armored vehicles, “light weaponry” and “artillery weapons” used in the operation were supplied by Ukraine.

Speaking at the same event in northern Ukraine, Kapustin drew a distinction between the actions of his men in Ukraine and the operation on the other side of the border in Belgorod.

“Everything we do within the state borders of Ukraine we obviously coordinate with the Ukrainian military. Everything we do, every decision we make beyond the border (of Ukraine) is our decision,” he claimed in a response to a question from ABC News.

Kapustin told reporters that his men had been “encouraged” by the Ukrainian military.

“They wished us good luck,” he said.

Despite trying to distance themselves from the actual military operation in Russia, Ukrainian officials have celebrated what has been happening on social media and have mocked the Russian authorities for appearing to have lost control of an area near the border for an extended period of time.

In some ways, the apparent tactics of Ukraine are reminiscent of the Kremlin’s modus operandi in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas during a war which began in the spring of 2014.

Back then, Russia armed and supported Ukrainian separatists but falsely denied any involvement.

Aleksey Baranovsky, a Russian dissident who is part of the Political Center of Russian Armed Opposition, suggested to ABC News that the Kremlin was now receiving a dose of its own medicine.

“This game works both ways,” said Baranovsky, whose organization is a political affiliate of the paramilitary groups which conducted the operation in Belgorod.

“Putin thought that he was the only one to play this game,” he said. “One should respond to aggression with cunning. And Ukraine has been doing that in a smart way, as have the Russian volunteers.”

Far right links

Fighters from the two paramilitary groups were also questioned by reporters on Wednesday about their neo-Nazi and white supremacist links.

Kapustin said his group had never hidden the fact it was a far-right organization.

“We are conservative traditionalist right wingers. I don’t care what [the Russian authorities] call us. Should we care how our enemy insults us?” he said.

The spokesman of the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed his group was “more centrist” than the Russian Volunteer Corps.

Both groups emphasized that their fight against Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia gave them a common cause with Ukraine.

According to Kapustin, the Ukrainian military and his group are “brothers in arms.”

The timing of the operation is noteworthy, coming as Ukrainian officials promise a major counteroffensive “soon.”

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(NEW YORK) — A recent high school graduate from Louisiana is missing after going overboard while on a trip to the Bahamas, school officials said.

Cameron Robbins, who attended University Laboratory School in Baton Rouge, was on a trip with a group of students when he went overboard Wednesday night, school officials said.

“As of this interview right now he has not been located,” Kevin George, director of the Laboratory School, told ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ midday Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard Southeast said Thursday that it is assisting with search efforts for a missing U.S. citizen “believed to have fallen overboard from a sunset cruise near Nassau” on Wednesday.

A Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the search is for Robbins.

The incident was reported between 11:30 p.m. and midnight local time Wednesday, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Estrada.

The Coast Guard is providing air assistance in the ongoing search and rescue mission, which is being led by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Estrada said.

The Bahamas vacation was not a school-sanctioned trip but included students from several high schools in the area, including between 10 and 15 students from the Laboratory School, George said.

The school just held its graduation on Sunday.

George described Robbins as a “great kid” and athlete who had been with the school for 13 years, since the start of his education.

“Just one of those kids that you’re so proud of once they cross the stage,” George said.

Students held a prayer circle for Robbins Thursday morning following news that he was reported missing, holding hands outside the Laboratory School, located on the main campus of Louisiana State University.

“It’s a tight-knit family,” George said. “The kids reached out to us wanting to know, could they do a prayer circle. Obviously we agreed. We really appreciated their leadership in this trying time.”

Robbins has a sister who is a junior at the school, according to George, who said he spoke to their father Thursday morning.

“It’s just a really emotional time for us right now,” George said. “Just trying to send up our prayers and give our support.”

“Let’s continue to pray and pray that we find Cameron safe and sound,” he said.

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(LONDON) — A driver has crashed a car into the gates outside Downing Street, the residence of Britain’s prime minister, authorities said.

No injuries were reported.

The incident isn’t considered terror-related, according to police.

The driver was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving, according to police.

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(LONDON) — One of the world’s most wanted fugitives accused of involvement in the Rwandan genocide has been arrested in South Africa after more than two decades on the run, authorities announced Thursday.

Fulgence Kayishema was taken into custody in Paarl, about 35 miles northeast of Cape Town, on Wednesday afternoon in a joint operation by the United Nations’ International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) and South African authorities.

Kayishema allegedly orchestrated the killing of approximately 2,000 people in western Rwanda in 1994 during the genocide, according to the IRMCT’s Office of the Prosecutor.

Story developing…

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(LONDON) — An American tourist was seriously injured in a shark attack in Turks and Caicos on Wednesday, authorities said.

The 22-year-old Connecticut woman was snorkeling with a friend in the waters off Blue Haven Resort on Providenciales island at around 3 p.m. local time when a shark attacked, according to the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Department.

A resort employee contacted police and requested an ambulance, telling officers that the victim had her leg bitten off. Officers and an ambulance were then dispatched to the scene, police said.

The victim was transported to the nearby Cheshire Hall Medical Centre, where she remains hospitalized in serious condition, according to police.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is investigating claims that American munitions initially supplied to the Ukrainian government have been used in a rare cross-border attack on Russia by groups of anti-Kremlin assailants, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

“We’re looking into those reports that the U.S. equipment and vehicles could have been involved,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Matthew Miller, the State Department’s spokesperson, said that while U.S. policy against using weapons supplied to Ukraine outside of the country’s borders is clear, the exact circumstances surrounding recent attacks on Russian soil were not — yet.

“We have not reached any conclusions,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to prejudge either the outcome or when we’ll reach that outcome.”

Still, Miller’s comments marked a notable shift from earlier in the week when administration officials expressed skepticism about reports circulating online alleging that U.S.-supplied weapons were fueling the incursion.

On Tuesday, Miller said the accusations were being leveled by “armchair intelligence analysts” and based off of “fuzzy pictures on social media.”

But on Wednesday, he said, “Since then, there have obviously been media reports with additional images. We’re looking into those reports.”

The Pentagon has confirmed that no third-party transfer agreements from Ukraine to paramilitary groups have been approved by Washington or requested by Kyiv.

While Miller declined to say what consequences Ukrainian officials could face if the U.S. assesses the claims are accurate, sources within the administration say that determination will very likely be made at the highest level of the federal government.

The recent spate of attacks on Belgorod, a Russian oblast just over 20 miles from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, picked up on Monday, with drone footage capturing plumes of smoke over the region and local officials reporting that “Ukrainian saboteurs” had broken across the frontlines.

The Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion — two Russian paramilitary groups cooperating with Ukraine — have taken credit for conducting the operation.

Leaders from both forces have also said that they received weaponry, intelligence and guidance from Ukraine to carry out their mission, which one described as “ongoing.”

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian government asserted that the two organizations were behind the attacks but denied that Ukraine had played any role.

Belgorod’s governor said that at least one Russian civilian was killed and that eight have been wounded, and Moscow has promised to retaliate.

While the fog of war has made verifying any of the assertions surrounding the attacks in Belgorod exceedingly difficult, U.S. officials have a vested interest in determining whether American weapons and equipment were used — both to avoid the risk of fueling escalation with Moscow and to ensure Kyiv is properly managing lethal assistance in repelling Russia’s invasion.

ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Benjamin Gittleson and Matt Seyler contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Orcas may be teaching each other to attack boats following a spate of strikes on sailboats off the coast of Europe, some observers say.

Sailors have reported a series of “coordinated” attacks by a group of orcas, including a May 22 strike on a 26-foot vessel sailing off the coast of Cape Spartel, near the Strait of Gibraltar.

“[Six] orcas arrived, 2 adults very big, 4 smaller ones,” sailor JP Derunes wrote in Orca Attack Reports, a Facebook group dedicated to flagging orca activity. “Both rudders destroyed and blocked … Boat to be hauled off later this week.”

That attack followed a nighttime strike on May 4, when a Swiss yacht named Champagne, which was also sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar, was attacked by three orcas. They struck its rudder, eventually sinking it, reported Yacht, a German boating news outlet.

At least 15 human-orca incidents were recorded in 2020, the year in which the aggressive encounters are believed to have begun, according to a study published in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Many of those attacks included orcas biting or striking the rudders of sailboats.

No casualties appear to have been reported in the attacks.

Scientists said spikes in aggression may have been started by a female orca whom scientists have named “White Gladis.”

White Gladis is believed to have suffered a “critical moment of agony” such as a boat collision, which inflicted trauma on the orca, triggering a behavioral switch that other killer whales have learned to imitate.

The majority of orca-sailor encounters have been harmless.

“In more than 500 interaction events recorded since 2020 there are three sunken ships. We estimate that killer whales only touch one ship our of every hundred that sail through a location,” Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aviero, told Live Science.

According to a study in Biological Conservation, a peer-reviewed journal, “sophisticated learning abilities” have been found to exist in orcas, with imitation found to be particularly significant.

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(NEW YORK) — A U.S. nonprofit created after a school shooting is helping troops in Ukraine learn crucial medical care — and some soldiers on the ground credit the new skill set with saving lives.

Stop the Bleed, a nonprofit collaboration from the American College of Surgeons formed in the aftermath of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, is training Ukrainian soldiers and giving kits that could save lives to troops fighting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dr. Roxolana Horbowyj, a Philadelphia-based surgeon, has been teaching Stop the Bleed directly to people in Ukraine via Zoom. Horbowyj said she used to teach the techniques in person in Ukraine before the war started but faced challenges when students did not have tourniquets. Now, she instructs soldiers about how to use everyday items to stanch bleeding.

“We use a sock-like scarf that’s meter by meter, a spoon and a keyring, and they’re very specific steps of what to do. And it works,” said Horbowyj, who is of Ukrainian descent.

The nonprofit also released a YouTube video in Ukrainian to train those who could not be trained in person or virtually.

A Ukrainian soldier who survived in Bakhmut for a month said that the skills from Stop the Bleed were invaluable.

“[The skills] even saved my life sometimes. … If I am writing to you now, then I was successful in them,” said the soldier.

The soldier asked ABC News not to share his or her identity due to safety concerns.

Dr. Aaron Epstein, the founder of the non-governmental organization Global Surgical and Medical Support Group which partners with Stop the Bleed, agreed that the work is critical, saying he’s heard anecdotally that hundreds of trainees have saved lives amid the conflict. treated some of the injured in Ukraine and educated medical personnel on the frontlines.

“These people probably could have left and fled to Europe, but knowing full well that they had some level of medical knowledge as med students or residents chose to stay and try and learn more and kind of that higher level [medical training] to help their fellow Ukrainian citizens,” said Epstein, whose mission is to train those in war zones.

Stop the Bleed distributed bleeding control equipment, including 50,000 combat application tourniquets, after receiving $99,000 in donations. The organization has trained more than 20,000 Ukrainians as of January, according to its website.

But the work comes with risks, including discovery of the new resources by Russian forces.

“They’re much more muted and much more careful — I know they can’t always speak,” Horbowyj said of her more recent visits to train troops. “Some of the classes that we had we might have to take a pause because somebody’s bomb alarm went off.”

Epstein said his team was targeted by a drone in Ukraine, but luckily lost it in a neighboring building.

“It’s just particularly heinous when they deliberately target someone who is trying to help someone else. It just is kind of barbaric,” said Epstein.

Horbowyj said that ambulances and even medics are often targeted.

“The medics will pull someone out and be you know, sheltered behind a rock or something, a drone with a grenade and come find them and drop a grenade on them too,” said Horbowyj.

Epstein said that seeing the atrocities has made him more motivated to help Ukrainians, but also made him more grateful for life in the U.S.

“Whenever I hear med students or residents say, ‘Oh man, I’m so stressed out. I didn’t get my six hours of sleep last night.’ Well, at least you don’t have the Russians coming here to kill you tomorrow,” said Epstein.

Epstein said that his next step is to provide more surgical relief, training and support. But, he noted, the most important thing is “the relief of being there for people.”

Horbowyj told ABC News she hopes to provide frontline medic training in person.

May is National Stop the Bleed Month, which encourages people to learn how to stop bleeding before first responders arrive.

While Ukrainian officials have released very little information on military casualties, there have been an estimated 22,734 civilian casualties including 8,490 deaths and 14,244 people injured since Russia invaded in February 2022, the United Nations said in April.

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(LONDON) — Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has lost his bid to challenge a decision that he cannot pay for police protection while he is in the United Kingdom.

A judge ruled Tuesday that Harry cannot bring a second case against the U.K. Home Office, querying their stance that Metropolitan Police protection could not be bought.

Harry, the fifth in line to the throne, has been fighting back against a 2020 decision by the government that denied his family automatic police protection while in Britain after he and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, stepped down from their roles as senior working royals.

At the time, the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, known as RAVEC, made a decision that security for the Sussexes would be granted on a case-by-case basis.

A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan declined to comment Tuesday about the court ruling.

Harry, who now lives in California with Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet, has said he wants police protection for his family while on British soil and is willing to pay for the cost himself, but the Home Office denied that request.

The judge ruled Tuesday that Harry could not seek to challenge that decision.

Harry is still involved in a separate, ongoing case with the Home Office as to whether he should still be entitled to Met Police security while he is in the U.K.

Harry has only returned to the U.K. a handful of times since moving in 2020.

The latest court ruling in the U.K. comes just days after Harry and Meghan claimed they were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” while being pursued by paparazzi in Manhattan, where Meghan received an award.

A spokesperson for the couple accused paparazzi of being “highly aggressive” and driving on the sidewalk and running red lights during a two-hour “relentless pursuit” of the famous pair. Harry and Meghan were returning from the Ms. Foundation’s annual gala at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on May 16, along with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, when the incident reportedly occurred.

“While being a public figure comes with a level of interest from the public, it should never come at the cost of anyone’s safety,” the spokesperson said.

Police sources, however, have said the episode did not involve the amount of paparazzi the spokesperson claimed.

Police sources told ABC News two New York Police Department detectives were present at the Ziegfeld when Harry and Meghan emerged from the event and drove alongside the couple’s private vehicle to get them home.

Along the way, police sources said photographers on bicycles are visible on security cameras, but not the kind of caravan described by sources close to Harry and Meghan. The police sources didn’t discount the idea that whatever occurred may have been scary for those involved.

Since moving to California, the Sussexes have relied on a privately funded security team.

The family’s current security situation is similar to that of Harry’s late mother Princess Diana, who had to rely on private security protection after her divorce from Harry’s father King Charles III in 1996.

One year later, in 1997, Diana died in a car crash in Paris after the car she was riding in was pursued by paparazzi.

“When Diana died, she didn’t have police protection. She had a private security team at that point,” Victoria Murphy, ABC News royal contributor, said last year. “And I think it’s very clear that Prince Harry feels that the police protection is superior and that that is what he wants for his family.”

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(NEW YORK) — More than 50 years ago, a plane carrying 45 passengers and crew, including a Uruguayan rugby team and some of their friends and family, crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina.

For 10 weeks, the survivors had to deal with the extremes before they were rescued, including subzero temperatures, two back-to-back avalanches and near starvation, left with no choice but to eat from the remains of their deceased friends to stay alive.

“We are dead men walking, but…we are still walking,” Nando Parrado, one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash, told ABC News.

Parrado and others who lived through the ordeal share their incredible story of fear, loss and survival in an ABC News Studios documentary “Prisoners of The Snow” premiering on ABC on May 22 at 9 p.m. ET and streaming on Hulu the next day. In addition to interviews with survivors, mountaineers and survival experts, the two-hour program will include photographs taken by the passengers who lived through the 72-day ordeal.

On Oct. 12, 1972, the flight was supposed to take the amateur Old Christians Club rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, for an exhibition match against the Old Boys Club, an English rugby team in Santiago.

Bad weather prevented the team from making it all the way to Santiago, and the plane was forced to land in Mendoza, Argentina overnight.

Despite high winds, the next afternoon, the plane took off again for Santiago. The Fairchild aircraft was unable to climb to the necessary 26,000 feet to fly directly over the Andes Mountain range, so the pilots opted for a U-shaped route where they were able to fly lower through a mountain pass, according to aviation expert and ABC News contributor John Nance.

With the air traffic control clearance, the pilots began their descent. However, they didn’t realize it was too soon, and that they were headed straight in the heart of the Andes, Nance said. The pilot was unable to clear the ridgeline and the airplane hit the mountain.

Upon impact, both wings and the tail tore off. The remaining fuselage slid down the mountain at high speed until it hit the bottom of the valley.

“I was thrown with an incredible force, and as I was fainting, I was realizing that I was alive and the plane had stopped,” Roberto Canessa, one of the survivors, told ABC News.

Twelve people were killed as a result of the crash. The remaining 33 survivors had varying degrees of injury.

Two of the survivors who had medical training, including Canessa who was a medical student at the time, quickly scrambled to tend to the wounded. Parrado’s mother died in the crash and his sister was badly injured. She died days later.

Parrado himself suffered a skull fracture and was in a coma for three days before he woke up.

“I said, ‘I’m not dead. Why? Because I was thirsty. I was thirsty.’ And I said, ‘If I’m thirsty, I’m not dead,'” Parrado recalled.

Parrado and the other survivors would face a struggle to quench their thirst and hunger until their expected upcoming imminent rescue. But that rescue wasn’t coming.

And although they were surrounded by snow, there were no initial means to melt it into drinking water.

“You can eat snow, but the snow hurts your mouth,” survivor Carlos Páez Rodríguez told ABC News.

Eventually, the survivors used metal from the wreckage to construct a device that melted the snow to water using sunlight. But their food supply was limited, according to mountineer Ricardo Pena. Survivors said in those first few days, they would share a little square of chocolate or a little bit of cracker with a little bit of fish in it, and some wine.

By day 10, they learned from the plane’s transistor radio that a search had been called off.

After long discussions and out of desperation, the survivors said the group came to a painful decision to harvest the bodies of the dead passengers for food. It was their only option for survival. They compared it to taking communion.

“We shook our hands and we say, ‘If I die, please use my body. So at least you can get out of here. And tell my family how much I love them,'” Parrado said.

As the group continued to plan for a way to safely look for help, they would face another deadly obstacle on day 17. Two avalanches swiftly raged down the mountain and the fuselage became entombed in snow with everyone inside.

“You don’t see, you don’t hear, you cannot move and you are dying,” Canessa said.

Eight of the initial survivors were killed in the avalanche. The remaining 19 survivors were stuck in a small space between the snow and the bulkhead, a space that would comfortably have fit four.

Their only option for food was to eat from the bodies inside the fuselage that did not survive the avalanche.

“It’s a very, very humiliating thing to eat a dead body,” Canessa said. “I thought of my mother that I had unique chance of telling her not to cry anymore, that I was alive. And to do that, I had to buy time, and to buy time, I had to eat the dead bodies.”

After three days, the survivors said they were able to tunnel their way out of the snow and see daylight.

The survivors were highly motivated to continue exploring ways to get back to civilization.

Canessa, Parrado and Antonio “Tintin” Vizintín, one of their fellow teammates, eventually found the tail end of the plane. In it, they said they found suitcases with some warm clothing, a small amount of food and batteries.

“They were like, well, we could connect that to the radio and make the radio work and call for help,” Peña said. “It was like, if we can make the radio work and call for help, let’s do that instead of risking our lives.”

But they were ultimately unable to get the radio to work.

Eventually, the survivors devised a plan where Parrado, Canessa and Vizintín were to make an escape.

Once this was decided, the survivors ensured that Parrado, Canessa and Vizintín, who they named “the expeditionaries,” ate a larger portion of the food supplies to build up their strength, according to an interview that the survivors told John Guiver, the author of “To Play the Game,” which chronicled their story.

Bolstered by several layers of clothing, and travel gear, including a sleeping bag that was patched together from materials of the plane wreckage, the men set out to be saved on Dec. 12: day 61 of their ordeal.

What they anticipated to be a one-day trek from the valley where the fuselage lay, up to the top of the mountain took them three days.

Parrado was disheartened to see snowy mountains all around them, instead of the green valleys of Chile.

“The most frightening moment of the 10 day trek for me was when I reached the summit of the first mountain and I looked what laid ahead,” Parrado said.

Parrado suggested to Canessa and Vizintin that because the trek was longer than they expected, Vizintin should go down to update the others, and leaving Parrado and Canessa with Vizintin’s food ration.

Parrado and Canessa’s trek down the mountain proved even more treacherous, and Parrado said his shoes began to break. By the eighth day of their journey, the men approached a river bank and found signs of life: including cattle, a cattle track and a rusty soup can.

The trail led them to a pivotal moment in their journey. Cannesa recalled seeing a man riding a horse down the slope of a small mountain. He immediately alerted Parrado who quickly began running down the slope towards the man.

Parrado caught the attention of this man on a horse, Sergio Catalan, but because of the loud roar of the river between them, Canessa said they couldn’t hear each other. However, he said he heard Catalan say the word “mañana,” Spanish for tomorrow, indicating when he would return.

“That dream tomorrow we always had, was real now,” Canessa said.

The next day Catalan and his two sons returned and threw Parrado a rock with some paper attached and a pencil across the river.

Parrado wrote down a message that would ultimately change his fate and the fate of his fellow survivors: “I come from a plane that crashed in the mountains. I am Uruguayan. We have been walking for 10 days. I have 14 friends wounded on the crash site. We need help. We don’t have any food. Please come and get us.”

“As soon as he read my message, he went for help,” Parrado said. “And that was probably the brightest moment in the 72-days.”

Catalan traveled 10 hours on horseback to alert the authorities, and soon the military, police, journalists and others came, according to Parrado.

Alipio Vera, who was a reporter for Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) and on the scene, told ABC News, “they were very weak, their voices were barely audible…it was incredible, to see people that were rugby players, who were pretty strong, now they were almost skeletons.”

“I took their blood pressure, respiration, pulse and everything,” said Wilma Koch, the nurse who attended Parrado and Canessa upon their rescue, told ABC News. “At that moment, well, Roberto looked very faint, but with a lot of spirit. But Nando looked better.”

Back at the crash site, the remaining survivors had heard the news about the successful expedition from their radio, and they began to prepare for their own rescue.

Parrado said he led helicopter pilots to the site and the crews arrived on Dec. 22, day 71.

The 14 survivors at the fuselage were taken to safety with two trips over two days. Referring to the helicopters, survivor Carlos Páez Rodríguez recalled: “I saw them as two gigantic birds, bearers of freedom. I cannot explain that moment’s happiness.”

Upon their rescue, the survivors were treated for several conditions including malnutrition and scurvy.

When word began to spread about the survivors eating the dead, they addressed the media as a team.

“Some thought it was good, some thought it was bad, but I couldn’t care less,” Canessa said. “They don’t have any kind of right to judge us.”

Quickly the sensational headlines faded and many public figures, including the Pope, expressed sympathy for their struggles. Their story would be the subject of several books, including ones written by Parrado, Canessa, Strauch and Páez, and was adapted into the 1993 film “Alive.”

The crash would also inspire the fictional Showtime show “Yellowjackets.”

Beyond the fame and spotlight, many of the survivors would go on to lead long lives and have families.

“We trusted each other. We fought for each other,” Parrado said. “So this is a rugby story. Rugby saved my life.”

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