On the 17th night on the mountain, an avalanche swept down the valley and covered the wreckage of the fuselage. The snow tore through the makeshift wall at the back of the fuselage and covered survivors, all except four: Echavarren, Nogueira, and Vizintin were sleeping in the hammocks, and Harley was awakened and stood up before the snow had swept over them, Harley and Vizintin dug for their friends, Echavarren and Nogueira were too shocked to move. Nineteen of the survivors made it through the avalanche but eight had died under the snow:
- Daniel Maspons
- Juan Carlos Menéndez
- Liliana Methol
- Gustavo Nicolich
- Marcelo Pérez
- Enrique Platero
- Carlos Roque, the mechanic
- Diego Storm
Roque had been uncovered showing a flicker of life, a few survivors kept breathing for him for what seemed like hours, but they could not revive him.
An hour later, a second avalanche swept over the wreck, but because the entrance was already blocked with snow from the first one, the second simply passed over and the plane was now completely buried. With little room in the cabin, they spent that night trying to keep from freezing, since their blankets and shoes were now lost under the snow. At first sign of day, a group began to burrow
through the snow at the front of the fuselage and into the pilots cabin and to the window, which faced the sky because of the tilt of the plane, the window was pushed up through the layer of snow covering it and up to the surface. Roy Harley poked his head through the hole, and discovered a snow storm had set upon the crash site. For 3 days they sat inside the tomb the avalanche had created. On November 1st the snow stopped and they set about digging out. In a couple days they had managed to make a tunnel out the rear of the fuselage to the surface, and through this tunnel they brought out most of the snow from the cabin, and the bodies of their friends who had died.
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