Sabena and made his way to England where he joined the Royal Air Force. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was buried in Opprebais, a village south-east of Brussels on December 19, 2007. The Belgian military attended and a flypast of four F-16 jets in missing man formation was made. In addition to its air destinations, Sabena also had a ground shuttle service between Valenciennes, France and Brussels Airport. Sabena's fleet consisted of the following aircraft at the time of the bankruptcy in November 2001: Sabena The Societé Anonyme Belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne, (French; "Belgian Corporation for
Sabena Flight 503 communication was cut off. The aircraft had crashed somewhere in the mountains of Rieti, Italy North-East of Rome and was now missing. Sabena itself got notified about the missing aircraft that same night at 23:15 but would not make an official statement until the morning of the following day. The airplane had crashed somewhere in the mountains of Rieti, Italy North East of Rome which were known for being difficult to access and also lay in a nature reserve where wolves roamed. The Italians immediately started a search and rescue mission to locate the missing aircraft and rescue its occupants.