1948 Sabena DC-4 Crash 1948 Sabena DC-4 Crash The 1948 Sabena DC-4 Crash was the crash of a Douglas DC-4-1009 of the Belgian airline Sabena, 27 km South of Libenge, Congo (Democratic Republic) on 12 May 1948. It was the deadliest accident for Sabena at the time and the second of three deadly Sabena crashes in 1948. It was also the deadliest in Belgian Congo before the country's independence in 1960, of the 32 people on board 31 were killed, leaving only 1 survivor. The DC-4-1009 involved was built in 1946 and bought new from Douglas with serial number 42932 and registration "OO-CBE" and
Sabena Douglas DC-7C was introduced for long-haul routes but this plane would begin to be supplanted after only three years by the jet age. It remained in service on the transatlantic route until 1962. On 3 June 1954, a Soviet Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO reporting name "Fagot") attacked a Sabena-operated Douglas DC-3 on a cargo flight from the United Kingdom to Yugoslavia, killing the radio operator and wounding both the captain and engineer. Co-pilot Douglas Wilson managed to land in Austria but the plane suffered significant damage. For the 1958 world exposition in Brussels, Sabena leased two Lockheed Super Constellations