Operation Gardel
Argentine Air Force Military transport aircraft · Plane crashed after bomb placed in a sewage drain under the runway detonated during take-off
From El Palomar Air Base to El Palomar Air Base
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 6 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 114
- Survivors
- 108
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 29
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Military transport aircraft
- Aircraft type
- Military TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- TC-62
- Operator
- Argentine Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 6
- Route
- From El Palomar Air BaseTo El Palomar Air Base
Approximate · Estimated position: San Miguel de Tucumán, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Operation Gardel was the codename given by the Peronist guerrilla organization Montoneros to the downing of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules, belonging to the 1st Air Brigade's 1st Transport Group as it took off from the old Teniente Benjamín Matienzo International Airport, carrying 114 Gendarmerie personnel as part of a military intervention in Tucumán province.
Background
The plan was to set off an explosive charge in the form of a conical tip placed below the runway when the C-130 was to be at full throttle during takeoff.
Near the middle of the runway some 1,100 meters away from the northern end and 1,000 from the southern, a disused sewer led to a storm drain. A cable was laid through the 250-meter tunnel, emerging from the storm drain and connecting the charge to the 12V battery of a parked vehicle. The switch would be activated from a nearby pit.
This "masterpiece of military engineering", referred to as such by Montoneros, had taken at least six months of planning; the fork of a branch was used as a benchmark to calculate the plane's trajectory.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Operation Gardel” (revision 1366469907, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Operation Gardel
- Article
- Operation Gardel
- Revision
- 1366469907 · 2026-07-28 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q20963509
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Operation Gardel" (page 47738570, revision 1366469907)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.