Date:	Friday 30 July 1937
Time:
Type:	Sikorsky S-38B
Owner/operator:	Basque Government - Spanish Republican Aviation
Registration:	Unknown
MSN:	314-15
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Cantabric Sea - near Suances -   Spain
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
1.First exported from Sweden to France, export license revoked, new export license for UK. Was used during the civil war in Spain (republican goverment, shot down by one of their own I-15).
A/C history: constructed 1930 and bought by William S Durant, US reg NC11V, to Sweden 1933, registred SE-EKN in 1934.
2.The aircraft (RS-1) being retired from US forces since 1934, was acquired by the Basque Governement from a Swedish intermediary, in an attempt to obtain any airworthy material. It was damaged in an air attack in Bilbao and later fully repaired in Santander. The aircraft performed its first test flight piloted by Francisco Casals and a crew of four. The aircraft did not show yet according Republican markings and it was spotted and shot down at sea, in a blue-on-blue incident by a FARE Chato Sqdn (Polikarpov I-15). The pilot, and three other crew members were killed (Gabriel Nuevo Avendaño, Arturo Mellado Ortiz, Perfecto Saiz Martínez)

1.http://forum3.sff.n.se/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4238
2.https://www.eldiario.es/euskadi/blogs/fighting-basques-ecos-de-dos-guerras-1936-1945/tragedia-suances-republicanos-gobierno-vasco_132_1087928.html
3."Entre el Añil y el Cobalto, Los Hidroaviones en la Guerra de España"
1987 Emilio Herrera Alonso IHCA
Pgs 178-180

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-Apr-2012 00:34	Masen63	Added
15-Apr-2012 11:40	Masen63	Updated [Operator]
22-Sep-2012 11:39	Masen63	Updated [Source, Narrative]
20-Nov-2021 09:22	volman	Updated [Date, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Phase, Source]
03-Jan-2022 18:06	volman	Updated [Registration, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]