Sabena Flight 503 Sabena Flight 503 The crash of Sabena Flight 503 was an accident involving a Douglas DC-6 of the Belgian airline company Sabena which crashed into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy, 100 km north east of Rome on 13 February 1955, killing all 29 people on board. The Douglas DC-6 involved was built in 1947 with serial number 43063/60 and registration OO-SDB and was used by the Belgian airline company Sabena until its destruction in 1955. Sabena Flight 503 was a Douglas DC-6 which departed from Brussels, Belgium at 17:17 GMT en route to Leopoldstad, Congo with stops at Rome-Ciampino, Italy
Sabena Tutsis and moderate Hutus at the Hôtel des Mille Collines of Kigali, saving them from being slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia during the Rwandan genocide (this is depicted in the motion picture "Hotel Rwanda"). In March and April 1998 two McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 aircraft, both leased from CityBird, joined the fleet and such long-haul destinations as Newark, Montreal and São Paulo were (re)introduced. 1999 saw new colours introduced to the fleet, beginning with an Airbus A340. One of the latest fleet types that Sabena introduced, right after the A321 and A320 was the A319 which saw service in 2000. These new