ABC News Studios has announced a new documentary, Prisoners of the Snow, which tells the unbelievable story of the 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 carrying a rugby team traveling with friends and family to a match in Chile. Of the 45 passengers, only 16 ultimately survived after the plane crashed in a remote location in the snow-covered Andes Mountains.
What’s Happening:
- With reporting by ABC News contributor Chris Connelly, the two-hour documentary features new interviews with five of the crash survivors, Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, Carlitos Páez Rodríguez, Eduardo Strauch and Roy Harley. They tell their story of fighting for survival over the course of 72 days in the freezing wilderness.
- Through their chilling firsthand accounts, the five men share their story of determination and perseverance, which helped inspire the popular series Yellowjackets.
- From defying death in the plane crash and two avalanches to near starvation, they relive the unimaginable choices they were forced to make to stay alive by eating the bodies of their dead friends as their only option for survival. After 61 days on the mountain, Parrado and Canessa led the way to their miraculous escape and rescue.
- The program also includes interviews with mountaineers, adventurers and survival experts who have studied their experience, visited the crash site and followed the escape route explaining the incredible challenges the passengers endured.
- Prisoners of the Snow airs Monday, May 22nd (9:01-11:00 p.m. EDT) on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu.
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