Missing pilot’s family calls off search

Jace Radke

Monday, March 15, 1999 | 11:34 a.m.

Gus Sabo's first solo flight was on his 16th birthday.

More than 2,000 hours of flight time and 35 years later, his family has confirmed, Sabo made his final flight on March 7, when the 51-year-old manager of the North Las Vegas Airport headed home to his wife and daughter from Baja California.

"We have ended the search for Gus," North Las Vegas Air Traffic Control Tower Manager Tom Petrakis read from a statement prepared by the Sabo family Sunday night.

Family friend and searcher Ralph Luera explained that after seeing the wreckage of Sabo's home-built Long EZ on Sunday, the family decided to call of the search.

"We believe that no one could have survived the damage that we saw," said Luera, who saw the wreckage in Guaymas Mexico with Sabo's brother Michael. "We're speculating that the craft got turned upside down in the air and the back hit the water before the plane landed facedown in the water. The engine and pilot were ejected into the water.

"The canopy, the seat and the top of the plane were gone."

The plane's fuselage was found off the northwest tip of the Island of the Guardian Angel in the Gulf of California on Saturday, Luera said. The Mexican Navy towed the wreckage across the gulf and south to Guaymas, where Michael Sabo and his sister, Susan, examined the ruined plane on Sunday.

"I think we're all in a state of denial that such a vibrant and strong life force is gone," said Sabo's friend and supervisor Jacob Snow. "I'll always cherish him and the memories of him."

Sabo was flying in formation with a friend from Las Vegas, dentist Jeff Glynn, on when the two were separated by bad weather about 80 miles south of San Felipe on the afternoon of March 7.

"Everyone is searching for their ideal self, but Gus found it," Snow said. "He gave life to everyone around him. It's not just a loss for his friends and family, but for the whole community."

The U.S. Coast Guard, Air Force, as many as 200 Mexican marines, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and numerous Las Vegas pilots and residents participated in the search for Sabo.

"This past week there has been such an outpouring of love and support that we could never repay it and will be forever grateful for it," Petrakis read from the family's statement. "Such an outpouring of love is a great tribute to Gus."

Sabo joined the Clark County Department of Aviation in 1984 as an electrician and was promoted to electrician supervisor over McCarran International Airport. Sabo has served as the general aviation manager of the North Las Vegas Airport, Perkins Field at Overton and the Searchlight Airport for the last three years.

Sabo was also the Nevada state representative for the Central States Association, a pilots' association.

Petrakis said that the examination of the wreckage brought some closure for the family, but it has still been a hard time for everyone who knew Sabo.

"I'm trying hard to hold my emotions, but it's extremely difficult for me," Petrakis said with red-rimmed eyes. "I loved him like a brother. He was just a phenomenal individual, husband and family man.

"He use to laugh and say that he couldn't believe that they were paying him to make a living doing what he would do anyway as a hobby."

A public memorial service will be held at the North Las Vegas Airport at 1 p.m. on Friday.

Sabo's wife, Carolyn, dean of health services at UNLV, is asking that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to "Youth in Aviation" care of Richard Schultz, 926 Vista Lago Way, Boulder City, NV 89005.