Airliner taken

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33967, 7 October 1975, Page 21

Airliner taken

(New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) FORMOSA (Argentina), October 6. Army, police, and border patrol troops foiled an elaborate attack on an infantry base yesterday by guerrillas who seized the Formosa Airport and used a hijacked airliner in their getaway.

The Army said that at feast 26 people were killed, making it Argentina’s bloodiest clash in five years.

The dead included “more than 15” guerrillas, nine soldiers, an Army sergeant and a lieutenant, the Army said.

One detachment of Leftwing Montoneros guerrillas successfully seized the airport south of the city and fled in the hijacked Argentine Airlines Boeing 737 jet. forcing the crew to make a crash landing on a cattle ranch 400 miles away.

The attack at the Army’s 29th Infantry Regiment north of the city was a failure. About 50 guerrillas described as wearing all-blue uniforms of shirt, slacks, and cap were driven off by soldiers and failed to reach the airport to join their comrades in the escape.

It was the most ambitious attack yet in Argentina’s recent rebel escapades. The Montoneros, who took credit for the attack in telephone calls to news media in' Buenos Aires. previously dynamited an Air Force trans-, port plane carrying border : oatrol troops and bombed the, 'Navy’s newest missile-' carrying destroyer. The nine soldiers killed — all conscripts — included one i who was in league with the : guerrillas, the Army said.