Transport: Strangling Cloth

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.

Last week Civil Aeronautics Authority’s crash board issued a post-mortem (in advance of official reports): a rag in the air intake had choked off the Q.E.D.’s breath. Crash Board Member Carl B. Allen hastened to add that sabotage was out of the question because no saboteur could so plant a rag as to gum the works at a crucial moment. How it got there remained any man’s guess. Some guesses: 1) the propeller whisked it off the ground into the intake; 2) a careless grease-monkey left it near the intake; 3) sabotage.