As national champion , Owen was selected as a member of the U.S. Figure Skating Team to compete in the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships , to be held in Prague , Czechoslovakia . The championships were scheduled to begin on February 22 , 1961 . Just before 7:30 pm EST , on Valentine 's Day 1961 , Owen , her mother Maribel Vinson-Owen , her sister Maribel and the rest of the US team , along with 16 of the team 's friends , family and coaches , boarded Sabena Flight 548 at Idlewild Airport in New York . On February 15 , 1961 , about 10:00 am Brussels Time , the Boeing 707 approached Zaventem Airport . The aircraft was on a long approach to runway 20 when , near the runway threshold and at a height of 900 feet , power was increased and the landing gear retracted . The airplane attempted to circle and land on another runway but never made it back to the airport . The plane made three 360 degree turns to the left , during which the bank angle increased more and more until the aircraft had climbed to 1500 feet and was in a near vertical attitude . The 707 then leveled wings , abruptly pitched up , lost speed , and started to spiral rapidly , nose down , towards the ground . It crashed and caught fire in a marshy area adjacent to a farm field less than two miles from the airport ( ) at 10:04 a.m. Brussels Time . All 72 people on board , as well as a farmer on the ground , were killed . Rescue workers discovered a signed copy of the Sports Illustrated magazine , featuring Owen with her signature pixie cut and a bright red skating dress on the cover , amid the twisted metal and smoldering rubble of the wreckage . Laurence Owen was only 16 years old
Sabena Flight 548
Sabena Flight 548
Laurence Owen