Francisco Domingo Abal Guerault (24 June 1951 – 13 October 1972) was a Uruguayan

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

player. He was part of the

Old Christians Club Old Christians Club, or simply Old Christians, is a Uruguayan sports club from the Carrasco neighbourhood of Montevideo. The club is known mostly for its rugby union team that became famous around the world due to the 1972 Uruguayan Air Force ...

and was considered one of the best rugby players in his country. In 1970 he was part of the Uruguayan rugby team. Part of his life and the tragedy experienced during the

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known ...

is featured in the film ''

Society of the Snow ''Society of the Snow'' () is a 2023 survival drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and based on Pablo Vierci's 2008 book of the same name, which details the true story of a Uruguayan rugby team's experience in 1972 after Uruguayan Air Forc ...

''. Abal is played by Argentine actor Jerónimo Bosia.

Biography

In '' Miracle in the Andes'', the book by his childhood friend Fernando ''Nando'' Parrado, Abal is described as a good-looking young man from a family with good social and economic status. He had earned, by the time he was 15, like Parrado, a place in the ''Stella Maris First XV'', the starting line-up of the

Old Christians Old Christian (, , ) was a social and law-effective category used in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th and early 16th century onwards, to distinguish Portuguese and Spanish people attested as having cleanliness of blood, known as Limpieza ...

rugby team. He graduated from Stella Maris School. The Abal family owned a

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

factory where Francisco had started working. He was also a shareholder of Abal Hnos. Francisco is known for being one of the 45 passengers of the

that crashed in October 1972 in the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

sector of the

Andes Mountains The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571

On the plane he was traveling next to Nando, in the right row of seats but in the aisle seat. He later asked his friend to change seats. Also on the plane was his cousin, Javier Methol, 36, with his wife Liliana, 34. Javier was an executive and shareholder in the Abal cigarette factory and a survivor of the tragedy.Carmen Ayesa Esquivel (16 de enero de 2024)
La sociedad de la nieve: Bayona explica por qué los supervivientes tenían tanto tabaco y no intentaron hacer fuego

Antena 3 Antena 3 may refer to: *Antena 3 (Portugal), a national radio channel produced by the Portuguese public broadcasting entity Rádio e Televisão de Portugal *Antena 3 (Romania), a Romanian television channel owned by Intact Media Group *Antena 3 (Spa ...

. Consultado el 25 de enero de 2024. After the crash, ''Panchito'' was badly injured and his legs were damaged, but in spite of the injury he was able to speak; it is known that he told part of the events of the accident. When the provisional wall was built to cover the hole in the plane, he was laid there along with the other seriously injured: the siblings Susana and Nando Parrado. During that night, with a trickle of voice, he asked for help that nobody could give him and murmured that he was freezing. Later at dawn, when medicine students

Roberto Canessa Roberto Jorge Canessa Urta (born 17 January 1953) is a Uruguayan paediatric cardiologist, motivational speaker, and former rugby player. He is one of the sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash in the Andes mountains on 13 ...

and

Gustavo Zerbino Gustavo Carlos Zerbino Stajano (born May 16, 1953) is a Uruguayan businessman, motivational speaker, sports executive and former rugby union player. He is known for being one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed i ...

examined the wounded the next morning, they realized that he had died as a result of his wounds and the extreme cold. The corpse was covering Susana Parrado and presented a purple hue in the extremities. He was only 21 years old. Susana died a few days later. Currently, his remains rest together with the other victims five meters from the monument in their honor at the site of the accident.

Bibliography

* * The 1993 film, '' Alive'', is an adaptation of this book. * Originally published in Spanish in 2008 as ''La Sociedad de la Nieve: Por Primera Vez Los 16 Sobrevivientes Cuentan la Historia Completa.'' The 2023 film, ''

'', is an adaptation of this book.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abal, Francisco 1951 births 1972 deaths Rugby union players from Montevideo Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 victims