SA de Transport Aérien

This article covers the former Swiss airline SATA, for information on the existing Portuguese airline see SATA Internacional .

SA de Transport Aérien
IATA code :	(without)
ICAO code :	VS
Call sign :	SATA
Founding:	1966
Operation stopped:	1978
Seat:	Geneva , Switzerland
Fleet size:	9
Aims:	international
SA de Transport Aérien ceased operations in 1978. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

SA de Transport Aérien , or SATA for short , was a Swiss charter airline that ceased operations in 1978.

history

SATA was founded in Geneva in 1966 . Small aircraft of the types Cessna 172 and Cessna 206 were the first aircraft to be used for regional flights to France . A Cessna 401 , a Pilatus PC-6 Turbo-Porter and a Hughes 300 helicopter followed later . In 1968 SATA bought Swissair's first commercial aircraft, a Convair CV-440 Metropolitan . In the spring of 1969, SATA rented a total of two Vickers Viscounts from the Irish Aer Lingus until the end of 1971 .

SATA developed into an intercontinental airline. For example, the company also used a Caravelle in wet lease for Air Ceylon from Ratmalana Airport in Colombo to Bangkok , Bombay , Karachi , Kuala Lumpur and Singapore . In its prime, the then third-largest Swiss airline (after Swissair and Balair ) flew to New York , Los Angeles , La Paz and Bangkok, among others .

The Caravelle accident in Madeira contributed significantly to the company's bankruptcy . The authorities also revoked SATA's operating license on August 23, 1978. From the bankruptcy estate of the staff and new management by which was a part of Swissair , the CTA - Compagnie de Transport Aérien founded.

fleet

• Convair CV-440 Metropolitan
• Convair CV-640
• Douglas DC-8-53 and DC-8-63CF
• Sud Aviation Caravelle -10B1 R
• Vickers Viscount 803, 808

Incidents

During its existence from 1966 until it was closed in 1978, SATA 2 suffered total write-offs of aircraft. One of them killed 36 people.

The Caravelle 10B1R HB-ICK of SATA whose crash ushered in the demise of the company on 18 December 1977

• On July 17, 1973, a SATA Convair CV-640 ( aircraft registration HB-IMM ) hit the runway violently when landing at Tromsø Airport and jumped again into the air. At the second impact - on the nose landing gear - it collapsed. All 60 occupants survived the accident. The aircraft was totaled.

• On December 18, 1977, the SATA Caravelle 10R with the registration number HB-ICK , coming from Zurich on behalf of the tour operator Airtour Suisse , hit the sea during a nighttime approach to Funchal airport, Madeira ( Portugal ), as a result of an early descent. According to the agency reports, the air traffic controllers had tried to inform the crew of the insufficient altitude. The aircraft sank to a water depth of around 105 meters within two minutes. The commander was a line check pilot for the route to Madeira and very familiar with the airport. In 2011, the NZZ wrote that both pilots would not have been authorized to land at night at this difficult to approach airport. Of the 57 inmates, 21 survived the accident. The plane had just returned from maintenance in Toulouse a week earlier. The HB-IKC seat belt system was banned after the accident; apparently some people had failed to open it. The wreck of the Caravelle was only discovered by Portuguese amateur divers in October 2011, 34 years after the accident (see also SA-de-Transport-Aérien-Flight 730 ) .

See also

• Former Airlines List (Europe)
• List of aviation disasters from 1976 to 1990
• Video (French) ( MOV ; 54.0 MB)

literature

• Charles Jacquat: Le goût du risque. Editions A. Barthelemy, Geneva 1982.
• Charles Jacquat: You plomb dans l'aile. Pièges et turbulences dans l'aviation suisse: HB-out Sécavia, Geneva 2002.
• Benedikt Meyer: In flight. Swiss airlines and their passengers, 1919–2002. Chronos, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-0340-1238-6 .

Web links

• Flight accident data and report on the Aviation Safety Network of flight SATA 730

Individual evidence

1. ↑ jp airline fleets 1967–1971
2. ↑ Meyer, 2014, p. 212
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Neue Zürcher Zeitung 249/2011, p. 26th
4. ↑ Meyer, 2014, pp. 214–215
5. ^ Accident statistics SA de Transport Aérien - SATA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 14, 2018.
6. ^ Accident report CV-640 HB-IMM , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 14, 2018.
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Unsuccessful landing approach of a Sata Caravelle in Funchal , NZZ, December 20, 1977
8. ^ Accident report Caravelle HB-ICK , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 20, 2016.
9. ↑ SATA HB-ICK - December 18, 1977 on Sudaviation.com
10. ↑ (NZZ 249/2011, p. 26.)
11. ↑ aero.de - SATA wreck discovered after 34 years off Madeira October 26, 2011