Capture of Torrijos Airport
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American victory
- Capture of Panamanian Air Force
| Capture of Torrijos Airport | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the United States invasion of Panama | |||||||
  Torrijos Airport Capture of Torrijos Airport (Panama) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |
 Panama | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Robert W. Wagner |
Unknown | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
|
| ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Unknown 4 C-130 1 AC-130 gunship AH-6 helicopters |
200 1 ZPU-4 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
1 killed[1] 5 wounded[2] |
5 killed 50 captured 398 civilians detained | ||||||
The Capture of Torrijos Airport took place as an opening action of the United States invasion of Panama, and was fought between the U.S. military and the Panama Defense Forces (PDF) on 20 December 1989. The goal of this operation was to capture the Panamanian Air Force, headquartered at the airport, and to close the airport to traffic coming into Panama.[3]
The capture of Torrijos Airport was executed by the U.S. Army Rangers of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
The US had developed a three-stage plan to capture Torrijos Airport to the mission: to isolate Objective Bear (the main terminal), to eliminate enemy resistance, and to prevent the Panama Defense Forces (PDF) from interfering with Operation Just Cause.
The Company C could rely on fire support consisted of an AC-130 "Spectre" gunship and AH-6 attack helicopters. The American plan called for the AC-130 was to clear three .50-caliber machine gun positions and a ZPU-4 anti-aircraft position at the airport, while the AH-6s neutralised the PDF guard tower.
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Initially, U.S. intelligence indicated that there were very few people in the main terminal at H-Hour. However, two international flights had just landed at the airport, which was still fully operational. As a result of this, there were actually 398 civilians in the airport rather than the few dozen that the Americans had expected to find. In addition, to this intelligence failure the PDF's 2nd Company was on alert and was patrolling in and around the airport terminal buildings.