1935 Medellín Airport runway collision

The Medellin plane crash of 1935 was an accident involving two Ford 5-AT-B Trimotor aircraft at Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellín, Colombia on the afternoon of Monday, June 24, 1935, killing all but 3 of the 20 people involved.

Among the dead were Argentine tango singer Carlos Gardel, the co-author of the majority of his songs, Alfredo Le Pera, and one his guitarists, Guillermo Barbieri.

Background

Gardel was tired after touring Puerto Rico, Aruba, Curaçao and Venezuela. He had already accumulated more than 60 performances since April 1, and there were still performances left in Colombia, Havana, and Mexico, after which he would return, without vacation, to New York to act in a few films. He would then visit his mother in Toulouse and would return afterwards.

The delegation had gotten off the plane that came from Bogotá to make a brief stopover in Cali, where a crowd of 5,000 people was waiting to see Gardel perform at the Isaacs Theater.

Accident

The SACO F-31 plane was scheduled to take off from Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellín, Colombia at 2:51 pm on Monday, June 24, 1935, on a scheduled flight to Bogotá, Colombia, carrying 2 crew and 11 passengers including Gardel and his entourage. F-31 started accelerating down the runway when it suddenly started to swerve before losing control.

It veered off the runway and collided with a taxiing aircraft (C-31, nicknamed Manizales), an explosion followed which engulfed both planes in flames. All passengers and crew on the taxiing C-31 were killed in the accident, while only 3 aboard F-31 survived with various injuries. Gardel was killed in the crash.