Argo 16

Last updated

"Argo 16"
Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3), Italy - Air Force AN1011460.jpg
An Italian Air Force Douglas C-47 similar to the aircraft involved
Bombing
Date23 November 1973
SummaryDetonation of improvised explosive device
Site Marghera, Italy
Aircraft
Aircraft type Douglas C-47 Dakota
Operator Italian Air Force
Registration MM61832
Passengers0
Crew4
Fatalities4
Survivors0

Argo 16 was the codename of an Italian Air Force C-47 Dakota aircraft, registration MM61832, used by the Italian Secret Service SID and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)[ citation needed ] in covert operations.

History

On 23 November 1973, at 7:30 Argo 16 took off from the airport of Venice, arrived at the altitude of 2,500 feet, then fell and crashed into the Montefibre plant of Marghera, located in an industrial park close the airport. The disaster caused four deaths, including Commander Borreo, an experienced and highly decorated pilot who flew during the Second World War.

The code name of the plane Argo 16, was named for the giant mythological all-seeing Argus Panoptes. The aeroplane conducted electronic observation missions in the Adriatic Sea for the Secret Service against the Yugoslavian radar network. According to Luigi, Borreo`s father, the commander of the crew of the Argo 16, Anano Borreo, feared for his life: he was aware that his work placed him at the centre of delicate and dangerous situations.

General Gianadelio Maletti (SID) attributed the disaster to sabotage carried out by the Israeli Secret Service. The RAI dossier "Argo 16 - Un mistero mai chiarito", however, concluded that the cause of the crash will likely remain a mystery. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Propaganda Due</span> Italian masonic lodge banned in 1982

Propaganda Due was a Masonic lodge, founded in 1877, within the tradition of Continental Freemasonry and under the authority of Grand Orient of Italy. Its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, and it was transformed by Worshipful Master Licio Gelli into an international, illegal, clandestine, anti-communist, anti-Soviet, anti-Marxist, and radical right criminal organization and secret society operating in contravention of Article 18 of the Constitution of Italy that banned all such secret associations. Licio Gelli continued to operate the unaffiliated lodge from 1976 to 1984. P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the Holy See-affiliated Banco Ambrosiano, the contract killings of journalist Carmine Pecorelli and mobbed-up bank president Roberto Calvi, and political corruption cases within the nationwide Tangentopoli bribery scandal. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of Michele Sindona's financial empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linate Airport disaster</span> Aircraft accident in Milan, Italy in 2001

The Linate Airport disaster occurred in Italy at Linate Airport in Milan on the morning of Monday, 8 October 2001. Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 686, a McDonnell Douglas MD-87 airliner carrying 110 people bound for Copenhagen, Denmark, collided on take-off with a Cessna Citation CJ2 business jet carrying four people bound for Paris, France. All 114 people on both aircraft were killed, as well as four people on the ground.

Thai Airways Company or Thai Airways was the domestic flag carrier of Thailand. Its main base was the domestic terminal at Don Mueang International Airport. Its head office was located in Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Bangkok. In 1988, Thai Airways merged to become Thai Airways International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RAI</span> State-owned Italian broadcasting company

RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana, commercially styled as Rai since 2000 and known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels and radio stations. It is one of the biggest broadcasters in Europe, and the biggest in Italy competing with Mediaset and other minor radio and television networks. RAI has a relatively high television audience share of 35.9%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1998 Cavalese cable car crash</span> 1998 incident involving a US Marine Corps aircraft and a cable car in Italy

The Cavalese cable car crash, also known as the Cermis massacre, occurred on 3 February 1998, near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort in the Dolomites some 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Trento. Twenty people were killed when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, flying too low and against regulations, cut a cable supporting a cable car of an aerial lift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soewondo Air Force Base</span> Military airport of Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia

Soewondo Air Force Base is currently a military airbase in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Before 2013, this airport served commercial flights, and was known as Polonia International Airport which was the principal airport serving Medan, about 2 km from the downtown; it used to serve flights to several Indonesian and Malaysian cities, along with a flight to Singapore and Thailand. Previous international flights had been opened to Hong Kong, Taipei, Amsterdam, Phuket, Chennai, Johor Bahru, Malacca and Ipoh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Itavia Flight 870</span> 1980 aviation accident in Italy

On 27 June 1980, Itavia Flight 870, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 passenger jet en route from Bologna to Palermo, Italy, crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between the islands of Ponza and Ustica, killing all 81 people on board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauda Air Flight 004</span> Crash of an Austrian Boeing 767 in Thailand in 1991

Lauda Air Flight 004 (NG004/LDA004) was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Vienna, Austria. On 26 May 1991, the Boeing 767-300ER operating the route crashed following an uncommanded deployment of the thrust reverser on the No. 1 engine during the climb phase, causing the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic stall, uncontrolled dive, and in-flight breakup, killing all 213 passengers and ten crew members on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident involving the Boeing 767, and the deadliest aviation accident in Thailand's history as of 2024. The accident marked the 767's first fatal incident and third hull loss. Formula One world motor racing champion Niki Lauda, who founded and ran Lauda Air, was personally involved in the accident investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superga air disaster</span> 1949 aviation accident

The Superga air disaster occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane, carrying the entire Torino football team, crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, which stands on a hill on the outskirts of Turin. All thirty-one people on the flight died.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piazza Fontana bombing</span> Terrorist attack carried out in Milan in 1969

The Piazza Fontana bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The same afternoon, another bomb exploded in a bank in Rome, and another was found unexploded in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The attack was carried out by the Third Position, neo-fascist paramilitary terrorist group Ordine Nuovo and possibly certain undetermined collaborators.

<i>Geronimo Stilton</i> Italian childrens book series

Geronimo Stilton is an Italian children's chapter book series created by Elisabetta Dami and written under the pen name of the title character. Scholastic Corporation began publishing the English version of the series in the US in February 2004. In the UK, the English books are published by Sweet Cherry Publishing. The series is set on a fictional version of Earth dominated by anthropomorphic mice and rats and focuses on the title character, a mouse who lives in New Mouse City on Mouse Island. A best-selling author in-universe, Geronimo Stilton, works as editor and publisher for the newspaper, The Rodent's Gazette. He has a younger sister named Thea Stilton, a cousin named Trap Stilton, and a nephew, nine-year-old Benjamin Stilton. Geronimo is a nervous, mild-mannered mouse who prefers a quiet life, yet keeps getting into faraway adventures with Thea, Trap, and Benjamin in both fictional and real locations. The books are written as fictional memoirs of him on these adventures. The books are designed and distributed in full color, depicting important words in the text as colored and in illustrative typefaces.

Miran Hrovatin was an Italian photographer and camera operator killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, together with journalist Ilaria Alpi under mysterious circumstances.

<i>Moby Prince</i> disaster 1991 maritime disaster

The Moby Prince disaster was a major maritime accident resulting in 140 deaths. It occurred in the late evening of Wednesday 10 April 1991, in the harbour of Livorno, Italy. It is the worst disaster in the Italian merchant navy since World War II. It is also considered one of the two worst environmental disasters in Italian history, along with the explosion and loss of the tanker Amoco Milford Haven on the following day in an unrelated accident near Voltri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aeroflot Flight 141</span> 1973 aviation accident

Aeroflot Flight 141 was an international flight from Moscow to Prague. On 19 February 1973, the Tupolev Tu-154 crashed 1.5 kilometres short of runway 25 of Prague Ruzyně Airport. Most of the passengers survived the crash, but many died in the fire that followed. Out of the 87 passengers and 13 crew members, 62 passengers and 4 crew members perished with 18 occupants having serious injuries and the remaining 16 with either minor or no injuries. The crash was the first loss of and first fatal accident involving the Tu-154.

Leone Pompucci is an Italian film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TWA Flight 891</span> 1959 aviation accident

TWA Flight 891 was a Lockheed L-1649A Starliner that crashed not long after taking off from Milan Malpensa Airport on 26 June 1959. All 68 passengers and crew on board were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Si Fly Flight 3275</span> 1999 aviation accident

Si Fly Flight 3275 (KSV3275) was a non-scheduled international passenger flight from the Italian capital of Rome to Pristina, Kosovo. The flight was operated by Italian airliner Si Fly using an ATR 42-300 series. On 12 November 1999, the aircraft struck a mountain during the approach to Pristina, killing everyone on board. With 24 deaths, the accident remains as the deadliest aviation disaster in Kosovo's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1997 Irkutsk Antonov An-124 crash</span>

On 6 December 1997 a Russian Air Force Antonov An-124-100, en route from Irkutsk Northwest Airport to Cam Ranh Air Base in Vietnam, crashed in a residential area after takeoff from the airport.

This is a list of Italian television related events from 1988.

References

  1. Argo 16 - Un mistero mai chiarito Archived 2012-11-30 at the Wayback Machine RAI, Retrieved Feb. 21 2015

45°26′42.5296″N12°14′41.8945″E / 45.445147111°N 12.244970694°E / 45.445147111; 12.244970694