The co-pilot, Lt. Col. Lagurara, had been flying the plane throughout the entire flight. Beside him in the seat traditionally meant for the co-pilot sat Col. Ferradas, commander of the Fairchild. In the passenger compartment behind them the passengers enjoyed a routine flight. Some read, played cards, or chatted among their friends. Some were tossing a rugby ball back and forth along the cabin. At 3:24 on the afternoon of the 13th, Lagurara radioed to Santiago that he was over Curico, Santiago Control acknowledged and ordered Lagurara to turn north and descend to 10,000 feet. This would have been fine if the Fairchild had been over Curico as the co-pilot reported, but a headwind had slowed the plane and it was in reality just over Planchon - still within the mountains. Santiago in turn took Lagurara's report as true and instructed him as if he were clear on the west side of the mountains. At about 3:30 the Fairchild dipped into the clouds and encountered turbulence, the "Fasten Seat Belts" sign flashed on and the Steward paced the aisle making sure the passengers did as instructed before taking his seat at the back of the cabin. The plane hit at least two airpockets and swiftly sank below the clouds revealing mountains on all sides, Lagurara and Ferradas threw the engine throttles to full and tried to pull the Fairchild out of the mountains but in the thin air the propellers had little to grab onto. At an altitude of about 14,000 feet the right wing clipped a jagged mountain peak.

The wing splintered off and flung back and over the plane, smashing down on the fuselage and breaking the Fairchild's tail section off at the galley, the severed tail tore away. A split second later the left wing struck the rocks and broke loose, the propeller chewing into the cabin as the wing fragmented and fell to the ground. In these first moments of the crash, five of the people in the rear of the passenger cabin fell to their deaths from the gaping hole where the tail had been:

• Ramon Martinez, the navigator
• Ovidio Ramirez, the steward
• Gaston Costemalle
• Alejo Hounie
• Guido Magri

The plane continued forward through the air, dropping down onto the mountain, the fuselage careened down an 80 degree slope like a toboggan from hell. The sudden deceleration caused the passenger seats to break lose from their mountings and fall forward in a mass. As the fuselage continued ploughing down the mountain two more passengers, Daniel Shaw and Carlos Valeta, were thrown from the back. One of the passengers, Gustavo Zerbino, jumped from the mass of seats falling forward and planted his hands on the ceiling, his feet on the floor, Zerbino prayed aloud; another passenger, Carlitos Paez, began praying Hail Marys. As the slope began to level off and the snow got deeper the nose of the Fairchild crumpled back, sandwiching the cockpit and the pilots before the fuselage slammed to a halt in a deep bank of snow. The bulkhead separating the passenger cabin from the forward luggage compartment had given way, and passengers, seats, luggage and other debris ended up in a pile at the forward end of the fuselage. Those few who were able to emerged from the heap and went out the hole where the tail had been. Passenger Bobby Francois took a seat and lit a cigarette, he was soon joined by Carlitos Paez and Diego Storm. A fluttering above them caught their attention, looking up the mountain the three young men saw Carlos Valeta stumbling down the slope. Though apparently injured, Valeta was trying to get down the mountain, he'd slip and get back up, weaving back and forth until he stepped into a soft patch of snow and sank from view. Storm and Paez tried to venture out to him, but the snow was to deep. Carlos Valeta was gone. Inside the plane Roberto Canessa, a rugby player and medical student was doing his best to extricate the passengers from their seats, Gustavo Zerbino, another med student, was doing to same.

In time they found that three people in the passenger cabin were dead: The team physician, Dr. Nicola and his wife, Esther, and Eugenia Parrado, the mother of rugby player Nando Parrado. Parrado himself lay unconscious with a bleeding head wound, and his sister Susana suffered broken bones and internal injuries. Nando's best friend Panchito Abal also sustained a head wound. Another young man, Fernando Vazquez, was found to have bled to death soon after the crash. Graziela Mariani lay pinned among a tangle of seats, her legs broken and suffering internal injuries, her moans were constant.

Many survivors had leg injuries from when the seats piled forward, among the most serious were those sustained by Arturo Noguiera and Rafael Echavarren; Noguiera had broken both legs, and Echavarren had the calf muscle of his right leg twisted off, the muscle had to be relocated and wrapped in place with a shirt. One passenger, Enrique Platero, had landed on a steel pipe which stabbed into his abdomen and remained there, amazingly after the pipe was removed Platero moved along to assist the others. The plane's mechanic, Carlos Roque, emerged from his seat in the luggage room with a head wound, the young airman walked zombie-like from the wreckage, and sat in the snow. The debris piled in the luggage area made it difficult to access the cockpit from the inside, seeing this one of the passengers, Moncho Sabella, ventured outside along the fuselage using seat cushions as snow shoes. Sabella found the forward cabin door ajar, and slipped inside past the luggage and into the cockpit. Col. Ferradas had died, probably instantly, his body crushed between the instrument panel and rear bulkhead when the nose crumpled. Lagurara was alive but terribly injured and like Ferradas was pinned in his seat. Summoned by Sabella, Canessa and Zerbino found their way to the cockpit but Lagurara was beyond their help. Nothing could be done for the man. As they settled in for the night they found the cold unbearable, they had no blankets save for the nylon seat covers, and the jagged tear at the back remained open for the arctic air to blow in. The team captain Marcelo Perez, Roy Harley, and Numa Turcatti, who had been huddled near the break, sought to plug the hole. Using suitcases, seats, and whatever debris they could utilize, they built a makeshift wall at the break in the plane.

The morning of October 14 arrived on the mountain, like the day before the temperature was frigid and the sky overcast. It was found that four people had died during the night: Lt. Col. Lagurara, Fillipe Maquirriain, Julio Martinez-Lamas and Panchito Abal. Later in the morning Grazeila Mariani died of her injuries. Of the 45 people who set out from Montevideo on the Fairchild two days before, only 27 remained.