Word: sarabia
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Dates: during 1939-1939
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Queerest air tragedy of recent months was the crack-up of No. 1 Mexican Airman Francisco ("Pancho") Sarabia in Washington last June. One moment his stubby Gee Bee Special, the Q.E.D. was winging smoothly above the Potomac River; the next, downfluttering like a stricken hawk, it rammed its nose fast in the river bottom. By the time rescuers reached him, Sarabia was drowned. Shaken by the loss of their idol, Mexican mobs growled darkly of sabotage...
...Crisis abroad. Secretary of State Hull last week held conferences on the Tientsin situation but took no action, issued no statements (see p. 21). > Ambassador Francisco Castillo Nájera called to thank the President for U. S. courtesies upon the death of Mexico's air ace, Francisco Sarabia (TIME, June 19). The President seized the opportunity to ask Mexico to speed up its settlement of U. S. oil expropriation claims...
...quite reassured. Alberto Salinas Carranza, chief of Mexico's aviation, sent a message to Sarabia by air mail: "I shiver at hearing that you intend to return from Washington nonstop. . . . Continue flying with your head and do not permit your heart to intervene. Conserve yourself for our pride, the satisfaction of your family and the envy of the birds...
Ready to start home, Sarabia climbed into his racer at Washington's Boiling Field early one morning last week, headed into the wind, opened his throttle. The ship soared out over the calm, muddy waters of the Potomac...
...including the flier's wife and son, saw it all. Dr. Luis Quintanilla, counselor of the Mexican Embassy, and Naval Attache Manuel Zermeno jumped into automobiles, jounced over fields to the riverbank. Quintanilla and Zermeno flung off their coats, plunged in, swam to the plane, tried to pull Sarabia out. But he was inert, wedged in the cockpit, his head pressed against the instrument panel. When the plane had been towed ashore and Sarabia's body extricated, a coroner decided that Sarabia had drowned...