Avión Pirata (Pirate Airplane) is the name given by Bolivians to a Lockheed Constellation which mysteriously carried flights into El Trompillo Airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, during 1961.

[1] The airplane had previously flown for Braniff International Airways and Trans American Airlines before being acquired by the Empire Supply Company in 1960, months before the incident happened.

Locals believe that these transported goods to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Arica, Chile, among other destinations, from the United States, such as cigarettes, textiles, whiskey, socks, television sets and contraband items.

As the aircraft descended, the crew dived in a final attempt at getting the P-51's to call off their pursuit, causing one pilot, Captain Alberto Peredo Céspedes, to crash fatally.

After being incarcerated at Panóptico de La Paz jail, three of them were given provisional freedom and two were admitted into a local hospital under the supervision of American vice-consul in Bolivia at the time, Samuel Karp.

[citation needed] On 25 August 1961, a local judge assigned a Bolivian Air Force Commander as keeper of the airplane and the contents that it had during its last flight, as compensation for the P-51 lost during the plane's chase.