But like I mentioned, all of the passengers were Roman Catholic and they feared eternal damnation. So they rationalized that the act was to be viewed as a sacrament, eating the flesh to survive. 17 days after the crash, their misfortune continued when an avalanche killed eight people and trapped the survivors deep inside the fuselage with no food. The avalanche survivors began to cannibalize the newly fresh corpses of their friends. On December 12th, 1972, three of the survivors, two going all the way and lacking any mountain gear, began to climb the glacier. They trekked for over 10 days, traveling 38 miles. If it wasn't for the protein supplied by the human flesh they brought on their escape, they would have had no chance of success.