Sabena Flight 548 Crash

Date: February 15, 1961 • Location: Steenokkerzeel, Belgium

All 72 people on board Sabena Flight 548, including the entire U.S. figure-skating team, and one person on the ground were killed when the aircraft crashed on approach to Brussels Airport.

Sabena Flight 548 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Idlewild Airport in New York City to Brussels Airport in Belgium. On 15 February 1961, the Boeing 707 operating the flight crashed on approach to Brussels Airport, killing all 72 people on board and one person on the ground. The fatalities included the entire United States figure skating team, which was traveling to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The precise cause of the crash remains unknown; the most likely explanation was thought to be a failure of the mechanism that adjusts the tail stabilizer.