SN Brussels Airlines and regional investment companies, as well as the Brussels and Walloon governments) set up SN Airholding, headed by Étienne Davignon. After the 2001 collapse of Sabena, Belgium's flag carrier airline, Belgium was left without a national airline. In February 2002, SN Airholding took over the Belgian airline DAT, a subsidiary of Sabena, and changed its trading name to SN Brussels Airlines. In 2002, a strategic reorganization started, led by the former CEO Peter Davies. On 12 April 2005 SN Brussels took holding control of Virgin Express and on 31 March 2006 they announced their merger. On 7 November 2006 they
Sabena from Seaboard World Airlines, using them mainly on transatlantic routes. In the same period, there were experiments with helicopter passenger service using Sikorsky S-58 aircraft from Brussels to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and the Paris heliport at Issy-les-Moulineaux. 1960 saw the introduction of the Boeing 707-320 intercontinental jet for trans-Atlantic flights to New York. SABENA was mainland Europe's first airline to operate a jet across the Atlantic (BOAC had been flying jet transatlantic services using the de Havilland Comet 4 since 4 October 1958). One of Sabena's aircraft became the first Boeing 707 to crash while in commercial service when Flight