The Caravelle involved in the crash, HK-1810, had been grounded for two months of maintenance work before the accident. The aircraft was a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VI-R, a French-built twin-engine jetliner that had been manufactured in April 1963—making it seventeen years old at the time of the crash. Transportes Aéreos del Cesar, known as TAC, had acquired the plane three years earlier. HK-1810 was re-authorized for domestic operations before the accident, but the timing raised suspicions. December brought Colombia's busiest travel season, as families crisscrossed the country for Christmas reunions. Some investigators suspected the aircraft had been returned to service before all maintenance work was properly completed, pushed by the pressure of holiday demand and the revenue it promised.

On December 21, HK-1810 departed Bogotá on a route that would take it to Barranquilla, Valledupar, Riohacha, Medellín, and back to the capital. The plane landed in Barranquilla at 11:47 a.m. and departed thirteen minutes later. After a stop in Valledupar, it arrived in Riohacha at 1:35 p.m. Before the next leg, a taxi driver named César Rafael Díaz brought a bottle of whiskey to the captain, Jorge Jimenez. While the plane sat on the tarmac, Díaz noticed an oil leak from the right turbine. A mechanic inspected it and judged it harmless. At 2:15 p.m., HK-1810 took off for Medellín. Eight minutes later, at 2:23 p.m., an explosion tore the aircraft apart. Pilot Jimenez had radioed Barranquilla reporting technical problems moments before the blast, but there was no time for an emergency landing.

Arhuaco indigenous people from the nearby Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta arrived in Riohacha sometime after the crash and reported seeing a plane engulfed in flames. Rescue patrols set out for the crash site but suspended operations at 6:54 p.m. as darkness fell. Aerial surveys the following day revealed complete devastation: clothing hung from trees, and the smoking wreckage of the Caravelle was scattered across a wide area. Investigators declared the crash unsurvivable. The explosion that destroyed HK-1810 was confirmed as the cause, but what triggered it remained—and remains—undetermined. Two possible factors emerged: the oil leak in the right turbine that the mechanic had dismissed, and a shipment of Japanese gunpowder in the cargo hold that may have ignited. Neither was definitively proven to be the cause.

The seventy dead came mostly from Colombia's interior, particularly Medellín. Many had flown to the Guajira Peninsula to shop in Maicao, a border town near Venezuela known for duty-free goods—a common pre-Christmas tradition. Entire families were wiped out. The Hernández, Cortés, Vélez, and Carmona families each lost multiple members. A young child named Juan Lozano was among the dead. Among the victims was María de Pilar Sánchez, the daughter of Alfonso Sánchez López, the CEO of TAC itself. Initial reports feared that musicians from the group Los Hermanos Monroy, who had performed in Maicao the night before, were also aboard; that fear proved unfounded. The crash remains the eighth-deadliest aviation disaster in Colombian history, a country whose mountainous geography and challenging airfields have produced a disproportionate share of aviation tragedies.