and soldiers to aid the movement and stating that troops' quarters would be bombed shortly if they did not help in the revolution. He fled to Portugal and returned to Spain when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Reentering the Army, he was named chief of a main directorate of Aeronautics, a position from which he was dismissed shortly afterwards for his participation in an anarchist revolt in Andalusia. He was elected as a deputy in the Cortes for Republican Left of Catalonia in Barcelona, retiring from the army and focused on politics. Civil War When the Spanish Civil War exploded in July 1936, he was in the United States as an air attaché of the Spanish Embassy. Upon his return to Spain, in spite of his leftist political past, he joined the Nationalist side, of which his brother Francisco was a main leader. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was named head of the airbase at Majorca. His receipt of the command in Majorca was "received very badly" by his fellow aviators, who resented that Ramón, a Freemason who had been dismissed, had been promoted over officers with war merits. Death Ramón Franco was killed in an air accident on 28 October 1938, when his seaplane crashed off Pollença, near the coast of Majorca, while attempting to bomb Republican-controlled Valencia. His body was found floating in the water and his death led to rumors of conspiracies and sabotage. According to his sister, he was murdered by Freemasonry who loaded bricks and motor aboard his plane because he wanted to publish an anti-Masonic book called La burla del grado 33. Following the crash his brother Francisco, who would rule Spain for the next three decades, severed most relations with his brother's widow and daughter. References External links El vuelo del Plus Ultra, in Spanish. A picture of Franco at the Plus Ultra celebrations in Ferrol and Madrid (1926) Traveller's Guide of Europe: Ferrol c. 1919 Dornier Wal, in Spanish. 1896 births 1938 deaths People from Ferrol, Spain Republican Left of Catalonia politicians Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic Spanish aviators History of the Spanish Air Force Transatlantic flight Spanish Freemasons Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Spain Military personnel killed in the Spanish Civil War Aviation pioneers Air attachés Victims of aviation