The bombing killed all 14 occupants on board the helicopter, including Salvadoran lieutenant colonel Domingo Monterrosa who commanded the American-trained Atlácatl Battalion.

In December 1981, Salvadoran lieutenant colonel Domingo Monterrosa ordered soldiers of the Atlácatl Battalion to indiscriminately kill civilians in the village of El Mozote in the Arambala municipality of the Morazán Department.

[1] Morazán was one of the strongholds of the rebel Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in eastern El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992).

Radio Venceremos was operated under territory that Monterrosa claimed he controlled in Morazán, and he sought to capture the transmitter as a war trophy.

[3] The rigged transmitter's capture occurred during Operation Torola 4, a helicopter assault on FMLN positions in Morazán that was commanded by Monterrosa.

[6] On 23 October 1984, Monterrosa boarded a Bell UH-1H along with the rigged radio transmitter at Joateca, and the flight would transport them to San Francisco Gotera, the capital of Morazán.

[4] Among those killed included Monterrosa, Lieutenant Colonel Napoleón Herson Calitto (commander of the Morazán garrison), Major Armando Azmitia (Monterrosa's successor as commander of the Atlácatl Battalion), Major Nelson Alejandro Rivas, three pilots with the rank of sub-lieutenant, two artillery soldiers, three members of the Armed Forces Press Committee, one priest, and one sacristan.

The Salvadoran Army named Lieutenant Colonel Miguel Méndez as Monterrosa's successor as overall commander in eastern El Salvador.