Sabena 548 crashed while preparing to land at Brussels on 15 February 1961. The United States Figure Skating Team was aboard the aircraft, en route from New York to Prague via Brussels to compete in a figure skating championship. Six Caravelle jetliners were introduced on all medium-haul routes in Europe from February 1961, being flown on most routes alongside the Convair 440s, until the early 1970s. The beginning of the 1960s saw a major upheaval for Sabena in the Congo. Widespread rioting against Belgian colonials in the months leading up to, and after the independence of the Democratic Republic of the
CanJet and merged with Canada 3000 in May 2001 shortly before Canada 3000's bankruptcy. CanJet was relaunched on June 20, 2002 as an independent airline. The relaunched airline flew to three destinations, but quickly expanded. Canjet operated a fleet of nine Boeing 737-500 — seven of which were previously operated by United Airlines and one by Sabena airlines — and one Boeing 737-300. These airframes date back to the early 1990s. There were plans to expand the airline's fleet of Boeing 737-500 aircraft to 20 by 2006; however, the plans were not realized. In April 2004, CanJet launched services at Hamilton/John