BUENOS AIRES — Fernando de la Rúa, who resigned as president of Argentina after two years in 2001 amid one of the most spectacular economic collapses in modern history, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Belén de Escobar, in Buenos Aires Province. He was 81.

President Mauricio Macri announced the death on Twitter. Local news media reports said the cause was renal and heart failure.

A longtime public servant, Mr. De la Rúa will probably be remembered most for taking off in a helicopter from the terrace of the presidential palace on Dec. 20, 2001, halfway into his four-year term, moments after presenting his formal resignation.

That departure became the symbol of a failed presidency. Mr. De la Rúa had been unable to cool down a social and economic crisis that engulfed the country, leading to violent street protests, a state of siege and a crackdown by law enforcement that killed dozens.