The first leadership structure emerged quickly. Marcelo Pérez, the captain of the rugby team, took on a coordinating role. His athletic authority and the trust the rugby players placed in him made him a natural organizer for the initial period. He managed the food distribution, organized the work of sealing the fuselage, and tried to maintain collective morale.
One of the first things the survivors did was turn on the aircraft’s radio. The radio was intact in the cockpit, and they believed they might be able to make contact with air traffic controllers or rescue aircraft. What they found was that the radio could receive but not transmit: they could hear broadcasts but could not send. This limitation would become significant within days. For now, it meant they had a connection to the outside world — they could hear news broadcasts — without any ability to communicate back.
The search began almost immediately. Chilean and Argentine authorities launched air searches within hours of the aircraft disappearing from radar. On October 14, the second day after the crash, eleven search aircraft flew over the Andes looking for the missing plane. The white fuselage on the white glacier was invisible from the air. Search aircraft overflew the crash site without seeing it.
The survivors heard the aircraft. They came out of the fuselage, waved, tried to signal. The planes did not see them.
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## The First Weeks
The survivors settled into a routine of waiting and working.
Waiting because they assumed, rationally, that rescue was coming. The aircraft had been in contact with Chilean air traffic control. The route was known. Rescue aircraft were clearly searching. The rational expectation was that someone would find them soon.