Talk:Sabena Flight 548

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In the article, it is stated that this was the only Sabena crash ever, which does not correspond well with this article: Sabena_OO-AUB_Ostende_crash --Turbothy 13:57, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

It also states that it was the first 707 to crash... according to the link given at the bottom of the article, it was the 4th... so who do I trust, Wikipedia or the references?

The three previous crashes were all during training or test ([1], [2], [3]). This was the first 707 to crash while in normal service. --Turbothy 10:04, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I've added the crash box that should be on every accident page, and also removed the phrase that it was notable *because* the US figure skating team was on board. All crashes where 73 people die are inherently notable, even if there weren't any Americans or athletes on board at all.

I'm also not sure why 90% of the information is about the American figure skating team and not the accident itself. Edited to add: I'm not even sure why this should be a "figure skating" page at all. It's an article about a plane crash. Perhaps there should be a separate page about the 1961 American figure skating team, and this article should deal with the accident only? --Charlene 08:54, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry to belabour this article, but I noticed a minor error that I've corrected. It said that the FAA investigated the accident. This is problematic because a) the FAA didn't exist in 1961, so the info is wrong, b) the FAA doesn't investigate plane crashes these days (the NTSB, which does, is independent of the FAA), c) the Department of Transport has no file in their historical collections online for this accident, which makes me think that the CAB (the NTSB's predecessor) didn't investigate this, and d) Belgium had an air investigations branch at the time, and the aircraft was Belgian. I'm guessing the Belgians did the investigation, but perhaps the CAB assisted since this was the first commercial accident of an American-built aircraft model.

If we had access to the actual Aircraft Accident Report, this would clear things up immensely. --Charlene 09:10, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

As to why this article talks about figure skating, and not just the actual accident: The crash was a very notable event in the history of figure skating. It caused the cancellation of the World Championships that year. It not only wiped out a whole generation of American athletes, but almost all the top American coaches as well, and was therefore responsible for bringing foreign coaches like Carlo Fassi and John Nicks to the U.S. When I've seen news articles, TV features, or book references about this crash some 40+ years later, it's always been in the context of figure skating. I agree that any plane crash that kills 73 people is "notable", but figure skating is the reason why this one is still the subject of so much interest long after the fact.

BTW, most of the skaters who were killed in the crash already have bio articles, so I don't really see much point in a separate article about the whole team, too. It's not like the main crash article is so long it needs to be broken up. Dr.frog 17:54, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. An article on a plane crash would be incomplete without information on the long-term ramifications of the crash. The disruption of the American figure skating program is significant and highly relevant; it would be redundant to have a separate article on that topic. Powers ^T 14:02, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MOS issue

The Manual of Style indicates that we should avoid links within the bolded subject text in the first sentence (i.e., Sabena Flight 548 instead of Sabena Flight 548). I tried to revise the lead to remove that link and incorporate it elsewhere but haven't found anything that feels natural. Any thoughts? Powers ^T 14:03, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

how about now? István 05:30, 14 January 2007 (UTC)