The third of four Boeing 707s purchased by Aerolíneas Argentinas in the 1960s had a notorious yet forgotten history: It was the first Argentine airliner to be hijacked ever, brought Juan D. Perón definitively back home in a special charter flight in 1973, flew the 1986 football world cup champions from Mexico and was Aerolíneas Argentinas longest-lived Seven-Oh-Seven… but it was ignominously scrapped after 35 years in service!
Our subject was the 543rd Boeing 707 built in Seattle (Washington, USA), wore c/n 19240 and spent its career with only two known operators and registrations, Aerolíneas Argentinas’ LV-ISD (1966-1985 and 1987-1993) and Uruguay PLUNA’s CX-BOH (1986-1987), also wearing two basic Aerolíneas Argentinas liveries: “Condor + AA tail” adopted in the mid-1960’s and “AA hockey stick” of the mid-1970s.
Noteworthy flights:
- 10/08/1969: While flying from Ezeiza to Santiago de Chile, on a service to Miami (USA) via Lima (Perú), it was hijacked by Enrique Ignacio Ugarteche, a chemistry student without previous criminal records, who diverted the flight to Cuba to commemorate the second anniversary of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s death in Bolivia. After a tense refuelling stop at Pudahuel, captain Aníbal Aguirre decide to fly-on non-stop to Havanna, where the hijacker was arrested, the flight crew was interrogated and political propaganda was distributed among the passengers. After three hours in “José Martí” airport, the aircraft was released and took off for Miami.
- 06/1973: Chartered by the Argentine government, and duly decorated with the national coat of arms, departed Ezeiza on Friday 15 flying President Héctor J. Cámpora on an official visit to Madrid (Spain). The return flight to Argentina departed Barajas on Wednesday 20 carrying retired general Juan Domingo Perón on his return to the country. Due to riots and gunfights on the highway to Ezeiza, ground control instructed captains Connan Jorge Doyle and Fernando Cebral to divert to Morón air base, where the political leader and his wife were flown-off to the Olivos presidential residence on an Air Force UH-1H Huey.
- 06/29/1986: Operating flight AR385 “bis”, flew the Argentine football team back home after winning the Mexico 1986 world cup. With captain Ernesto San Juan at the helm, the aircraft flew an estimated eight hours to Ezeiza via Lima (Perú) with a crew of 12 and 146 passengers. The flight was full of eccentricities, including a non-standard pre-take-off captain speech (“Aerolineas Argentinas is proud of this flight returning home with the World Champion Team”), passenger cabin crew wearing world cup costumes and memorabilia, a triumph commemorative cake and a flypast before landing so that the team could see the multitude awaiting the champions and their leader, Diego Armando Maradona.
Variants:
Boeing 707-387B (first flown 12/09/1966). Hush-kitted, circa 1990.
Identities:
LV-ISC “Betelgeuse” (registered 12/22/1966), CX-BOH (09/1985) and LV-ISC “Betelgeuse” (07/1986, cancelled 12/06/1993).
Owners or operators:
Aerolíneas Argentinas (12/1966), PLUNA (09/1985, leased) and Aerolíneas Argentinas (returned 07/30/1986).
Fate:
Withdrawn from use circa 03/1992 (total time 71,671, total cycles 20,569), airframe scrapped in Ezeiza 1993.
Acknowledgements: Luis Edgardo Tello contributed to this log. Bibliography: Pavlovcic, G., Magnusson, M. y Raczynski, E.: “Catálogo Completo de Aeronaves Civiles Argentinas Registradas 1938-2016” (self-edited, Argentina, 2016) and Potenze, P.: “Aviación Comercial Argentina 1945-1980” (El Cronista Comercial, Argentina, 1987). Other sources: Archivo DiFilm, El Gráfico, Historiales Individuales, Infobae, La Baldrich, Perfil, Pista 18 and Zona Militar.
