Series based on harrowing Andes plane crash made available to stream for free

Here is the harrowing inspiration behind award-winning series Yellowjackets – which Brits can now stream for free on ITV.

Yesterday (15 February) the broadcaster added the first two seasons of the thriller series to its streaming library on ITVX, making it the first time the series has been free-to-air for UK viewers.

Starring Christina Ricci, Ella Purnell and Juliette Lewis, the series focuses on a group of girls on a high school football team who struggle to survive in the wilderness after their plane crashes in 1996, leaving them stranded alone for 19 months.

Flashing backwards and forwards between 1996 and the present day, we see how to the group are driven to extreme methods in order to survive – and the impact it had on the women who were eventually rescued.

Watch the trailer for the first season below:

What is the story of Yellowjackets based on?

Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of this Lord of the Flies-esque series is the fact that series creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson were inspired by the terrifying 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 plane crash.

The comparison was previously confirmed by Nickerson in an interview with NPR, with him revealing that the 1972 disaster was 'absolutely' an influence for writing Yellowjackets.

What happened in the 1972 Andes flight disaster?

In October 1972, a flight carrying a Uruguayan amateur rugby team Old Christians Club departed from Montevideo, Uruguay for Santiago, Chile, in order for them to play against English rugby team, Old Boys Club.

However the journey would be marred by bad weather, forcing the plane to stopover in Argentina for a night.

The plane would once again attempt its journey on 13 October on a route which would allow the pilots to avoid the worst part of the storm unfolding across the Andes mountains.

Yellowjacks is inspired by the story of the 1972 Uruguayan plane crash, where survivors were stranded in the remote Andes for 72 days (Bettmann/Getty Images)

However the flight's pilots would make a fatal error in miscalculating their location and descending prematurely, leading to the plane crashing into a mountain and then sliding 11,500 feet into a valley.

12 out of the 45 occupants onboard, 40 passengers and five crew members, would die on impact, while the 33 survivors were left stranded in the remote, snowy Andes.

For the survivors, who were sporting broken bones, skull fractures and a pierced abdomen, an agonising fight for survival now loomed ahead.

Five more people would die within the first 24 hours of the crash and one more a week later.

For the 27 survivors, they endured dwindling rations and the harrowing realisation that rescue planes flying overhead could not see them, After 10 days the group were able to locate a small radio inside the wreckage which revealed rescue searches had been called off as they were all presumed dead.

A memorial to those who perished in the crash and the aftermath (MARIANA SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Food supplies also ran out after the first week, meaning that survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism in order to survive.

An avalanche would claim the lives of eight more survivors, with three more dying in the following days before two members of the group - Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa - trekked through the Andes for days in order to find help.

Back at the camp, two more survivors would perish before help reached them.

After 10 days of trekking with only items found from the crash site, the two men were able to reach civilisation and sound the alarm over the other survivors on 21 December.

The remaining 14 survivors would be rescued from the mountains on 22 and 23 December, bringing the total number of survivors up to 16 after 72 days in the wilderness.

Seasons one and two of Yellowjackets are available to stream on ITVX for free.