Reported by Richard Engel, AVALANCHE Airs Sunday, June 28 at 7pm/6c on Dateline
New York, NY – June 24, 2015 – In AVALANCHE, a special edition of Dateline, NBC News’ Richard Engel tells the harrowing stories of the climbers that survived the deadly Nepal earthquake in April 2015. Engel traveled to Nepal in the aftermath of the quake that killed more than 8,000 people, destroyed millions of homes and devastated one of the world’s poorest countries. AVALANCHE airs this Sunday, June 28 at 7pm/6c on NBC.
As news broke of the Nepal earthquake’s destruction, Engel was the first television reporter to arrive at Everest Base Camp. In AVALANCHE, Engel retraces the footsteps of the Madison Expedition Group, who were climbing Mount Everest at the time of the earthquake. Cameras followed these 14 climbers on their remarkable journey as they trained, bonded together and ultimately fought for survival, stranded on the highest mountain in the world. The survivors look back on their experiences and share emotional eyewitness accounts with Engel.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Churton, who was travelling with the Madison group at the time of the avalanche, captured never-before-seen video from Everest Base Camp. Dateline, for the first time, will air the raw footage from Churton’s camera, which documents the moment of impact as fellow climbers scrambled to seek cover. In addition, Engel travels to Switzerland to meet Reto Rüesch, the brave helicopter pilot who single-handedly risked his own life to save countless climbers that were stranded on Everest.
Watch Preview of Dateline’s AVALANCHE: http://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/preview-avalanche-n381281
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Dateline NBC is the award-winning newsmagazine known for its distinctive storytelling on a wide range of topics from true crime investigations and mysteries, to breaking news reports and special series. It airs on NBC in primetime and reaches an average audience of 7 million viewers and is followed by over 1.7M followers on social media. David Corvo is the senior executive producer, Liz Cole is the executive producer and Lester Holt is the primary anchor of “Dateline NBC” (Thursdays at 8pm/7c, Fridays at 10pm/9c, Sundays at 7pm/6c). Follow Dateline NBC on Facebook and Twitter @datelinenbc.
For more information contact:
Nicole Enberg
NBC News
e: Nicole.enberg@nbcuni.com
p: 212-664-6192
