1958 Sabena Douglas DC-7 crash
Douglas DC-7C · Stall during an attempted go-around due to pilot error aggravated by partial engine failure
From Brussels Airport (BRU) to Léopoldville, Belgian Congo
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 61 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 65
- Survivors
- 4
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Douglas DC-7C
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-7
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- OO-SFA
- Operator
- Sabena
- Onboard fatalities
- 61
- Route
- From Brussels Airport (BRU)To Léopoldville, Belgian Congo
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Estimated position: Casablanca, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On 18 May 1958, a Sabena Douglas DC-7C crashed 6 kilometres (4 mi) southwest of Casablanca, Morocco near Casablanca-Anfa Airport, during an aborted emergency landing and attempted go-around. All 9 crew alongside 52 of the 56 passengers on board the aircraft were killed.
Crash
The Sabena flight departed from Brussel Airport on 17 May 1958 at 8.50pm with 50 passengers and 9 crew members on board, and arrived for her stopover in Lisbon without issue. After the flight departed from Lisbon Airport, with an additional 6 passengers, bound for Léopoldville in the early morning of May the 18th, the crew noticed vibrations in the no. 1 engine and decided to shut the engine down. Thereafter they notified Casablanca ATC and were granted permission to divert to Casablanca-Anfa Airport in order to attempt an emergency landing. The plane lined up with runway 21 at 5.25am but failed to touch down, instead flying at a height of 5 meters (15 feet) past the runway. With the landing gear down and with full flaps, the crew applied full throtle before climbing in sharp left turn to execute a go-around in an attempt to line up with the runway again. Ultimately the plane reached a height of 25 meters (80 ft) before stalling and crashing into a hangar some 600 meters past the runway. The aircraft broke in two and caught fire following the crash, only allowing four male passengers (One swiss and three Belgians) to escape the burning wreckage through the rear emergency exit while claiming the lives of the remaining 52 passengers (including 11 children) and all 9 crew.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the crash was determined to be a Stall resulting from an error of judgement by the crew in re-application of power when the aircraft was neither in the appropriate configuration nor at a sufficient speed to carry out the attempted go-around. The correct procedure the crew should have followed, would've been to apply full throttle and only gradually attaining V2 speed before retracting the landing gear and finally (at 115 knots) to retract the flaps from 50° to 20°.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1958 Sabena Douglas DC-7 crash” (revision 1374568468, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1958 Sabena Douglas DC-7 crash
- Revision
- 1374568468 · 2026-09-12 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q136674745
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1958 Sabena Douglas DC-7 crash" (page 81352640, revision 1374568468)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.