Plane Crash Kills Entire US Figure Skating Team

Sabena Flight 548 was on final approach to Brussels Airport on February 15, 1961, when the Boeing 707 crashed into a farm field in Berg, Belgium, killing all 72 passengers and crew plus one person on the ground. Among the dead were all 18 members of the United States Figure Skating Team and 16 coaches, officials, and family members, traveling to the World Championships in Prague. The crash wiped out an entire generation of American figure skating talent in a single moment. The team included the reigning national champions in every discipline. Sixteen-year-old Laurence Owen, who had won the ladies’ title just four days earlier and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated that week, was aboard with her mother Maribel Vinson-Owen, a nine-time national champion and the most prominent figure skating coach in the country. Maribel’s older daughter, also named Maribel, was the pairs champion. Bradley Lord and Gregory Kelley, the top two men’s skaters, were also killed. The cause of the crash was never definitively established. The aircraft had aborted two previous landing attempts due to the flight crew having difficulty configuring the aircraft for landing. On the third attempt, the plane stalled at low altitude and plunged into the ground. Investigators examined possible mechanical failure and pilot error but reached no conclusive finding. The 1961 World Championships were cancelled, the first and only time the competition has been called off outside of wartime. The United States Figure Skating Association established a memorial fund to rebuild the sport, investing in young skaters and coaching infrastructure. The effort took years, but by 1966 Peggy Fleming — who had been trained by a coach who replaced one of the crash victims — won the first of her five national titles, and in 1968 she won Olympic gold in Grenoble. The sport rebuilt itself from the crater that Sabena Flight 548 left in a Belgian field, but American figure skating never forgot the day it lost its future.