Sabena Flight 548

Sabena Flight SN548

A Sabena Boeing 707 similar to the crashed aircraft
Accident summary
Date	February 15, 1961
Summary	Possible Mechanical failure
Site	near Brussels, Belgium 50°56′02″N 4°32′10″E / 50.934°N 4.536°E / 50.934; 4.536Coordinates: 50°56′02″N 4°32′10″E / 50.934°N 4.536°E / 50.934; 4.536
Passengers	61
Crew	11
Fatalities	73 (all, including 1 on ground)
Injuries (non-fatal)	1 (initially)
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Boeing 707-320
Operator	Sabena
Registration	OO-SJB
Flight origin	Idlewild Airport, New York
Destination	Zaventem Airport

Sabena Flight 548, registration OO-SJB, was a Boeing 707 aircraft that crashed en route from New York City to Brussels, Belgium, on February 15, 1961, killing 73 people, including the entire U.S. figure skating team, which was on its way to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

The flight originated at Idlewild International Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) and crashed on approach to Brussels's Zaventem Airport. All 72 on board were killed, as well as one person on the ground (Theo de Laet, a farmer, was struck by debris). The crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 707 in regular passenger service, 28 months after it was placed into commercial use. It is also the deadliest plane crash to occur on Belgian soil.

The Boeing had to abort its landing at Brussels because of an aircraft blocking one of the runways, and tried to climb and circle towards another one. It started banking dangerously, but the attempts to level its wings caused it to spiral rapidly down to the ground, where it crashed on a farm.

The cause of the crash was never established, but is believed to have been a failure of the stabilizer-adjusting mechanism.

There was no indication of trouble on board the plane until it was forced to cancel its final approach to the Brussels airport, as a small plane had not yet cleared the runway.

Under clear skies at about 10:00 a.m. Brussels time, the Boeing jet was on a long approach to runway 20 when, near the runway threshold and at a height of 900 feet (270 m), power was increased and the landing gear retracted. The airplane attempted to circle and land on another runway, but never made it back to the airport. The plane made three 360 degrees turns to the left. During these turns, the bank angle increased more and more until the aircraft had climbed to 1,500 feet (460 m) and was in a near vertical bank. The 707 then leveled wings, abruptly pitched up, lost speed and started to spiral rapidly nose down towards the ground. It crashed and caught fire in a marshy area adjacent to a farm field near the village of Berg (then independent, nowadays part of Kampenhout), less than two miles (3 km) from the airport, at 10:04 a.m. Brussels Time.