Operation Gardel[note 1] 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.
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.
[1] 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.
[1] 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.
TC-62 took off from El Palomar Air Base at 09:00, carrying 85 members of the Argentine Federal Police, and landed at the Benjamin Matienzo International Airport at 11:56.