Sobelair

Sobelair

IATA ICAO Callsign Q7[1] SLR SOBELAIR
Founded	30 July 1946 (1946-07-30)
Commenced operations	15 October 1946 (1946-10-15)
Ceased operations	19 January 2004 (2004-01-19)
Operating bases	Parent company	Sabena (1949–2001) SN Brussels Airlines (2002–2004)

Société Belge des Transports par Air SA, known by its short form Sobelair, was a Belgian charter airline from that operated from 1946 to 2004. It was headquartered in Brussels^[2] (later in Zaventem)^[3] and operated mostly non-scheduled passenger and cargo flights out of Brussels Airport.^[4]

History

Sobelair was founded as a charter airline on 30 July 1946, originally (only during the initial months) known as Société d'Etude et de Transports Aériens, abbreviated SETA.^[5] The first revenue flight using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, which took place on 15 October of that year, was a flowers transport to Nice via Paris. In 1947, scheduled flights from Brussels to Elisabethville in Belgian Congo were launched on behalf of several companies in the Belgian colony, which held the majority of the stakes in the company. In 1949, these shares were acquired by Belgian flag carrier Sabena, which thus owned 72.29 percent in Sobelair.^[6]

When Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) was founded as an independent state in the former Belgian Congo, Sobelair ceased its African service, and concentrated on offering chartered holiday flights to the Mediterranean instead, as well as (between 1957 and 1962) domestic routes using small Cessna 310 airplanes.^[5][6]

Sobelair joined the

After having been acquired by a group of investors in June 2002, which led to the launch of scheduled flights on the Brussels-Johannesburg route, Sobelair was passed on to SN Brussels Airlines in early 2003, for which it operated charter flights henceforth. This did not lead to an improvement of the financial situation, and Sobelair declared bankruptcy in January 2004. TUI Travel placed an offer for taking over Sobelair's aircraft in order to create a Belgian airline subsidiary, provided that creditor protection would be granted. On 19 January, this measure was rejected, so that Sobelair went out of business and its then approximately 450 employees lost their jobs.^[6][7]

Fleet

Historical fleet

Over the nearly 60 years of its existence, Sobelair operated the following aircraft types:[1]^[8]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2011)

Accidents and incidents

• Sobelair suffered one fatal accident, which occurred on 22 April 1960. A Douglas C-54 Skymaster of the airline, registered OO-SBL, crashed into a mountain slope (a so-called controlled flight into terrain) whilst approaching an airfield in Bunia, then Belgian Congo. All 28 passengers and the seven crew members that had been on the chartered flight from Cairo died.^[9]
• On 20 December 1970, a Sobelair Douglas DC-6 (registered OO-CTL) was damaged beyond repair when it ran off the runway at Málaga Airport. The cargo flight with seven occupants had had to perform an emergency landing at the airport in bad weather conditions because the left main landing gear could not be extended due to a hydraulic problem.^[10]
• On 29 March 1981, an engine fire occurred with a Sobelair Boeing 707 (registered OO-SJA) shortly after take-off from Brussels Airport. The pilots returned to the airport and had to execute an emergency landing. As there had not been time to dump fuel, the airplane was too heavy, and was deliberately steered off the runway in order not to overshoot it, during which it suffered extensive damage. The 109 passengers and eight crew members survived the accident.^[11]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sobelair.

• Official website (archived)
• Sobelair aircraft