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🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

“El Mufa”: The Argentine Boeing That Was Hijacked Twice, Landed Without Its Nose Gear and Ended in Flames

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • A Boeing 737 operated by Aerolíneas Argentinas joined the airline in 1970 and later became known as “El Mufa,” an Argentine term for an object believed to bring bad luck.
  • The aircraft, officially named Ciudad de Trelew, accumulated an unusual history that included two hijackings, a landing without its front landing gear, a door loss in flight and a final fire.
  • The article recounts its first hijacking in 1973, when four Uruguayan passengers forced the crew to divert the aircraft toward Cuba.

Some people are said to bring bad luck. In Argentina, objects that seem to attract trouble can earn the nickname “mufa.” In aviation, most incidents have technical explanations, but one Aerolíneas Argentinas Boeing 737 appeared to fit the label unusually well.

The aircraft, registration LV-JNE, carried the more dignified official name Ciudad de Trelew, honoring the city in Chubut province. It made its first flight on September 11, 1970, and joined Aerolíneas Argentinas a few weeks later. It was a Boeing 737-287C, a combi version designed to carry both passengers and cargo, and belonged to the airline’s first generation of 737s.

They pointed a .22-caliber gun at the pilot and copilot, and made me take the passengers to the back and read their demand over the microphone: they wanted to go to Cuba.

· Pedro RossiThe former flight purser recalled the first hijacking of the aircraft in 1973.

Its unusual record began on October 20, 1973. The aircraft left Aeroparque for Salta, with a planned stop in Santa Fe. Pedro Rossi, then a 25-year-old flight purser, later recalled how four Uruguayan passengers seized control as the plane began descending toward Sauce Viejo airport.

“They pointed a .22-caliber gun at the pilot and copilot, and made me take the passengers to the back and read their demand over the microphone: they wanted to go to Cuba,” Rossi said in an interview with La Nación decades later.

It was this runway or the hills.

· Alberto GüeliThe commander described the aircraft’s near-empty fuel tanks after it reached Yacuiba, Bolivia.

The Boeing was first diverted to Tucumán. The hijackers asked for fuel to continue to Lima and then fly to Havana, but authorities refused to refuel them. The aircraft took off again and ended up in Yacuiba, Bolivia, almost at the limit of its range.

When Rossi managed to speak with the commander, Alberto Güeli, he received an alarming assessment: there was almost no fuel left. “It was this runway or the hills,” the pilot told him. Later that night, stones thrown at the aircraft from outside initially sounded like gunfire inside the cabin. Rossi said the plane had gone to Bolivia because the Salta base chief had warned the pilot that, if they landed in Argentina, President Juan Domingo Perón had ordered the landing gear wheels shot out unless the hijackers surrendered. The source excerpt ends before the account is completed.

At Yacuiba they threw stones at us which, at first, sounded like gunshots. It was very distressing, but we calmed down when we realized they were stones. Do you know why we were in Yacuiba? Because the Salta base chief managed to warn the pilot that the order from Juan Domingo Perón, the president of the nation, was to shoot out the landing-gear wheels if we landed on Argentine soil, and if there was no surrender...

· Pedro RossiRossi explained the diversion to Bolivia and the confusion caused by stones hitting the plane.
About this summary

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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