SOCIETE AIGLE AZUR, S. A. (SAA): France (1946-1955). Societe Aigle Azur (the “Blue Eagle”) is organized in the spring of 1946 to operate a Mediterranean network with a fleet of 2 war surplus Junkers Ju-52/3ms; points of call include Algiers and Oran from Marseilles and
Tunis from Nice via Calvi. Operations continue apace for the remainder of the decade in France, North Africa, and in Indochina.
In January 1950, the company purchases and merges competing Compagnie Algerienne de Transports Aeriens, S. A. (CATA) and assumes that airline’s Douglas DC-3s and routes from Algiers to Constantine and Biskra.
A Bristol 170 with three crew and a passenger is lost near Saigon on March 10; there are no survivors.
En route from Paris to Dakar on July 10, a DC-3 with 4 crew and 25 passengers fails its climb away from Casablanca on a charter flight and crashes (22 dead).
A DC-3 must be written off at Luang Prabang, Laos, on February 12, 1951; specific details are unavailable.
In April, SAA buys Trans World Airlines (TWA)’s five surplus Boeing 307s and becomes the 1950s largest operator of the Stratoliner.
The first two B-307s, formerly known as the Cherokee and Zuni, are delivered in May, followed by the Comanche and Navajo in June, and the Apache in July. These are employed in September to stretch the carrier’s operations to Brazzaville and Dakar. At year’s end, the company is divided into two divisions, Morocco and Indochina. The former is equipped with the first of five Curtiss C-46 Commando freighters ordered.
Stratoliner service to Saigon and Hanoi is inaugurated in the spring of 1952 and to Tananarive, Madagascar, in the fall. When Air Laos, S. A. is formed late in the year, the French carrier acquires a stake (20%) and provides the new Indochinese company with Douglas DC-3s.
Three fatal crashes, all in Indochina, are suffered in 1953.
The first occurs on March 17, when a DC-3 with eight aboard crashes while landing at Da Nang; there are no survivors.
On April 16, a DC-3 with 3 crew and 27 passengers suffers a wing failure and crashes west of Hanoi; there are no survivors.
A DC-3 charter from Vientiane with 3 crew and 22 passengers suffers an onboard fire on June 16 and crashes at Phou-Lassy, Vietnam; there are no survivors and the wreckage is not found for thirteen days.
While taking off from Dien Bien Phu on January 31,1954, the wheels of a DC-3 are prematurely retracted, causing the plane to crash; there are no fatalities, but the Douglas must be written off. Viet Minh forces destroy a DC-3 on the ground at Giam Lam, Vietnam, on March 4. Viet Minh antiaircraft gunners shoot down a C-46E approaching Dien Bien Phu on March 13; both of its crewmen are killed.
Following the July Geneva agreement ending the Indochina War, the subsidiary Aigle Azur Extreme Orient, S. A. is formed at the South Vietnamese capital from the company’s Indochine division; the Apache is reacquired from Air Laos, S. A. and assigned to this Saigon-based company.
In 1955, SAA is purchased and amalgamated into Union Aeromar-itime de Transport (UAT); however, its Saigon-based subsidiary retains the Boeings and continues independently of UAT. Two C-46s are sold to Air Cameroun (Societe Anonyme des Avions Meyer et Cie, S. A.).
World History
