One step closer, a few thousand kilometres further. Only days separate the realization of a dream that began in April 2021, and which has the Malvinas hero Owen Crippa and the historic Aermacchi MC339 (4-A-115) as protagonists.
The aircraft - used in 1982 by the then Lieutenant to attack the HMS Argonaut - protagonist of one of the greatest feats in the war for the recovery of the Malvinas Islands, was originally scheduled to arrive this Friday, January 10, at the port of Montevideo, but some logistical delays "upstream" delayed the arrival for a few days.
"This will cause a delay of a week or a few days more. But the plane will be arriving in Sunchales before the end of the month, then we will hold a press conference to give details of the project ," Crippa told journalist Dario Pignata .
The hero of Malvinas, "Cross of Heroic Valor in Combat" , stated that with the Aermacchi MC339 (4-A-115) in Argentina the next stage of the project begins.
"We have to start getting the missing spare parts, then put it together, build the interactive museum building in Sunchales. It will be a dream, it will be disruptive not only for the city, but also for the province of Santa Fe and for the Nation ," he clarified.
A dream about to come true
As reported by El Litoral , the emblematic unit had been exchanged in 2005 for spare parts for Sea King helicopters that would be deployed in the Antarctic campaign.
The plane was rescued from a scrapyard where it had ended up in the United States.
The aircraft, which was instrumental in Crippa's role in the Malvinas, was rescued from a scrapyard that was about to disappear. This Italian-made Aermacchi MB-339 , used by then Argentine Navy Lieutenant Owen Crippa on 21 May 1982 to attack HMS Argonaut , is the only one of its kind to have participated in an air-naval combat and returned safely.
"In 2005, when I was invited to the Punta Indio Base for the promotion of naval aviators who graduated that year, they told me the news," Crippa said about the moment when he was informed that his plane had been sold to a businessman from the United States. It was "a very hard blow," he confessed.
"I thought they would send it to the Naval Aviation Museum, but no. Since the Argentine Navy did not have the budget to purchase spare parts for the Sea King helicopters that were to carry out the annual Antarctic campaign...it was decided to sell three out-of-service Aermacchi model 339s in exchange for the necessary spare parts," Crippa explained in an article with El Litoral in April of last year.
The Aermacchi MB-339 is a military trainer and light attack aircraft developed during the 1970s. In addition to its combat capabilities, it is also used by the Italian Air Force's Frecce Tricolori aerobatic display team. Aside from the 1982 War, it also saw combat with the Eritrean Air Force during the 1998–2000 Eritrean–Ethiopian War.
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