The newly formed Katangese government requested military aid from Belgium while the Congolese state appealed for assistance to the United Nations.

Initial aircraft consisted of five de Havilland Doves, eight North American T-6 Texans, a de Havilland Heron, an Aérospatiale Alouette II helicopter, a Piper PA-18 and a single Sikorsky H-19 helicopter, which were left by the Belgian Air Force during the dissolution of the Belgian Congo.

[7] In September 1961, in the aftermath of Operation Rum Punch, Volant left Katanga and command devolved to the Katangese pilot Jean-Marie Ngosa and his Belgian adviser José Delin.

[1] Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations Secretary-General, was killed on 18 September 1961 when his aircraft crashed at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia while en route to negotiations with Tshombe.

Jan Van Risseghem, a former RAF fighter pilot from Belgium, reportedly claimed to have shot down the aircraft personally but has been widely disbelieved.

[11] Another Belgian pilot, known only as "de Beukels", was also reported to have claimed separately to have shot down the aircraft by accident during an attempted aerial abduction of Hammarskjöld.