Part of his life and the tragedy experienced during the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 is featured in the film Society of the Snow.
[2] 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.
[3] 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 rugby team.
[6] Francisco is known for being one of the 45 passengers of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in October 1972 in the Argentine sector of the Andes Mountains.
[8][9] 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.