1937 Sabena Junkers Ju 52 Ostend crash 1937 Sabena Junkers Ju 52 Ostend crash On 16 November 1937 a Junkers Ju 52/3m owned by Belgian airline SABENA, operating as a scheduled international passenger flight from Cologne, Germany, to London, England, crashed near Ostend, Belgium. The aircraft hit a tall factory chimney while attempting to land at Steene aerodrome near Ostend, Belgium. The accident killed prominent members of the Hesse royal family on the way to London for the wedding of Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine. The flight from Frankfurt to London was scheduled to stop at Ostend Airport but diverted to Steene Aerodrome due to
Airline teletype system although it is now owned by Rockwell Collins. In 1949, the Société Internationale de Télécommunication Aeronautique (SITA) was formed as a cooperative by 11 airlines: Air France, KLM, Sabena, Swissair, TWA, British European Airways, British Overseas Airways Corporation, British South American Airways, Swedish AB Aerotransport, Danish Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, and Norwegian Det Norske Luftfartselskap. Their aim was to enable airlines to be able to use the existing communications facilities in the most efficient manner. Morse code was the general means of relaying information between air communications stations prior to World War II. Generally, it was only necessary to relay