Death in South America

Five minutes behind schedule, a trimotored Pan American-Grace plane roared down the field, bounced aloft last week in Lima, Peru, southbound for Santiago. Chile with nine passengers and a crew of three.* About 150 ft. up the port motor cut out. The centre motor sputtered. With flying speed almost gone, the pilot tried to turn back. The big airliner shuddered, dived into the ground. On board was Manuel Trucco, leathery Chilean Ambassador to the U. S., on his way from Washington to Santiago where his wife had died. Ambassador Trucco suffered a broken pelvis. His pretty daughter Grace got a fractured shoulder. The airline's Vice President John D. MacGregor, making an inspection trip, got off with bruises. Capt. Harold Harris, another vice president, was unscathed. The pilot, the radio operator and a passenger were killed. Pan American-Grace had its first bad accident two years ago. A plane carrying six passengers and a crew of three took off from Santiago for Buenos Aires, headed inland over the towering Andes. An hour after leaving port the ship's radio before going dead reported thick clouds and snow flurries. The plane never reached Buenos Aires. Heavy snowfalls blanketed the slopes, choked the canyons. No trace of the plane was found by dozens of search parties.

Last week, after a hot summer had thinned the deep snows, two employes of a mountain resort hotel set out on mule-back. High up on volcanic Cerro del Plomo (Hill of Lead) they found the wreckage sticking out of shallow drifts. Some of the nine scattered bodies were decapitated; all were well preserved in their shrouds of snow.

--Pan American-Grace Airways is jointly and equally owned by Pan American Airways and W. R. Grace & Co. (bankers & shippers). It flies the west coast route and the trans-Andean jump in the parent air company's great South American loop. Last week it had flown nearly 5,000,000 mi., crossed the Andes safely 1,200-odd times.

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