Sabena Flight Academy a 'frozen' (becoming unfrozen when the candidate has completed 1500 hours in a multi-pilot environment) Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). The origins of the creation of a school providing training for future airline pilots were in 1953, when the Belgian government, which owned the aircraft, contracted the operation thereof to Sabena under the name "École d’aviation civile" (EAC). The theoretical and flight training parts were conducted at the airfield of Grimbergen in a building which no longer exists. Basic training was done using de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moths, replaced in 1968 by Siai Marchetti SF260s, while advanced training was entrusted
Air Zaïre other funds earned by Sabena in the country. Foreign ownership of the airline was eliminated at the same time, with the Congolese government holding a seventy percent share, the "Institut National Securite Sociale" holding eight percent, and local Congolese concerns holding the remainder. At the time, the fleet comprised two Douglas DC-6s, eight DC-4s, eleven DC-3s, two Curtiss C-46s, three Beech 18s, five Beech Barons, one Piper PA-23 Aztec and one Cessna 310. In 1967 the airline ordered two Sud Aviation Caravelles for delivery in October 1967 and the summer of 1968, and on 12 May 1967 a BAC One