Northeast Airlines (USA)

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Northeast Airlines
Douglas DC-9-31 N981NE
IATA code : NE
ICAO code : NE
Call sign : YELLOWBIRD
Founding: 1931
Operation stopped: 1972
Merged with: Delta Air Lines
Seat: Boston , Massachusetts , United States
United StatesUnited States 
Home airport : Boston airport
Fleet size: 18th
Aims: national as well as Montreal , Bahamas and Bermuda
Northeast Airlines merged with Delta Air Lines in 1972 . The information in italics relates to the last status before the takeover.

Northeast Airlines (originally Boston-Maine Airways ) was an American airline that became part of Delta Air Lines on August 1, 1972 .

history

Foundation and first years

In 1956, Northeast put their first Douglas DC-6 into service

The company was founded on July 20, 1931 by the railroad companies Boston and Maine Railroad and Maine Central Railroad under the name Boston-Maine Airways . The start of flight operations took place on August 1, 1931 on behalf of Pan American Airways ( Pan Am ) between Bangor and Boston . The scheduled route was completed with a stopover in Portland and flown with aircraft of the type Fokker F.10 . Just two months later, Boston-Maine Airways ceased operations after Pan Am terminated the partnership. The dormant company entered into a cooperation with the airline National Airways , which belonged to the Canadian National Railway , in 1933 . For National Airways operations were resumed on August 11, 1933 on the route from Boston to Bangor with eight Stinson SM-6000 machines .

Central Vermont Airways , another subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway , carried out similar contract flights for National Airways from August 27, 1933 . As a result, Boston-Maine Airways and Central Vermont Airways worked closely together and coordinated their flight schedules. The route network of the two companies from Boston to the states of Maine , New Hampshire and Vermont was increasingly dense until the mid-1930s. In addition, Central Vermont Airways set up an international scheduled service to Montreal (Canada) on March 20, 1934 .

Boston-Maine Airways acquired the majority stakes in the airlines Central Vermont Airways and National Airways in 1937 , which were then merged with her. From this emerged the Boston-Maine & Central Vermont Airways . From the end of the 1930s, Lockheed Model 10 "Electra" machines were used.

Change of name to Northeast Airlines

Boston-Maine & Central Vermont Airways was renamed Northeast Airlines on November 19, 1940 . A year later the company put its first Douglas DC-3 into service. During the Second World War , Northeast Airlines conducted regional scheduled flights as well as training courses for military training pilots and transatlantic charter flights for the Air Transport Command to Iceland and Scotland . The company received scheduled flight rights between Boston and New York in 1945 and operated its Douglas DC-3 on this route every hour from 1946.

In the mid-1950s, Northeast Airlines initially received temporary route rights for scheduled flights from Boston via New York, Philadelphia , Baltimore , Tampa and Jacksonville to Miami . The route was flown with Douglas DC-6B machines from 1956 . The company's first jet aircraft was a Boeing 707 leased from Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1959 . From 1960, Northeast Airlines used long-term leased Convair CV-880s on their flights to Florida . The Civil Aeronautics Board revoked the company's line rights for this route in 1962, against which the company sued. After several years of legal battle, Northeast Airlines was awarded unlimited route rights to Florida in 1967. From 1968 international connections to the Bahamas and from 1969 to Bermuda were offered. In addition, on October 1, 1969, the company set up its first transcontinental line connection between Miami and Los Angeles .

The media group Storer Broadcasting acquired a majority stake in Northeast Airlines in 1965 . In the same year, the first Boeing 727-100s were put into service and the older Douglas DC-3 (until 1966) and DC-6 (until 1968) were phased out. The company introduced a new corporate identity in 1966 , with the aircraft being given a yellow and white color scheme (referred to as "Yellobird"). On December 29, 1966, the company temporarily took over a Douglas DC-9-15 . The delivery of the first Douglas DC-9-31 took place on May 5, 1967. Northeast Airlines was also the first customer for the extended Boeing 727-200 , which was used from January 1968.

Financial difficulties and merger

At the end of the 1960s, the company ran into financial difficulties, which led to initial takeover negotiations with Northwest Airlines in the spring of 1970 . The company also canceled an order of four wide-body aircraft type Lockheed L-1011 . On August 1, 1972, Northeast Airlines was bought by Delta Air Lines and then merged with them.

fleet

Northeast Airlines started using leased Convair CV-880s on flights to Florida from 1960
Northeast Airlines Boeing 727 , New York / JFK 1970

Incidents

  • On August 11, 1949, a Convair CV-240 ( aircraft registration number : NC91241 ) had an accident while landing at Portland Airport . All 28 inmates survived. The aircraft was written off as a total loss. The cause was the unintentional activation of the reverse thrust prior to touchdown due to a defective locking mechanism.
  • On January 14, 1952, a Convair CV-240 ( N91238 ) touched down about 1,100 m from the runway at New York-LaGuardia Airport in Flushing Bay. The three crew members and 33 passengers were rescued. The aircraft was recorded as a total loss.
  • On September 15, 1957, the pilots of a Douglas DC-3 ( N34417 ) made the approach to Bedford (New Hampshire) too low. The machine hit several trees and hit about 1.2 kilometers from the runway. 12 people died in the accident.
  • On August 15, 1958, a Northeast Airlines Convair CV- 240-2 (N90670) was flown into the ground 450 meters from the runway threshold of Nantucket Memorial Airport (Massachusetts) with a visibility of only 200 meters in thick fog . Of the 34 inmates, 25 were killed.
  • On November 15, 1961, a Vickers Viscount (N6592C) of Northeast Airlines collided on the runway in Boston with a Douglas DC-6 ( N8228H ) of National Airlines taking off . Both planes were damaged beyond repair. There were no fatalities.
  • On February 24, 1967, the crew of a Douglas DC-6B of Northeast Airlines (N8224H) made an emergency landing in New York after an explosive decompression . All 14 inmates survived. Due to the amount of damage, the aircraft was written off as a total loss.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f Delta Flight Museum, History of Northeast Airlines
  2. ^ Boston-Maine Airways, April 1938 flight plan
  3. ↑ Rzjets.net, Northeast Airlines, Fleet List McDonnell Douglas DC-9 , accessed on September 18, 2017
  4. ^ Flight International, February 12, 1970
  5. ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 50 (English), September 1993, p. 81.
  6. ↑ Accident Report CV-240 NC91241 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 26 November 2017th
  7. ^ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 53 (English), June 1994, p. 95.
  8. ↑ Accident Report CV-240 N91238 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 26 November 2017th
  9. ^ Aviation Safety Network, November 30, 1954
  10. ↑ accident report DC-6A N34954 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 25 November 2017th
  11. ^ Aviation Safety Network, September 15, 1957
  12. ↑ Accident Report CV-240 N90670 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 26 November 2017th
  13. ↑ ICAO Aircraft Accident Digest 10, Circular 59-AN / 54, Montreal 1961 (English), pp. 180-188.
  14. ^ Aviation Safety Network, November 15, 1961
  15. ↑ accident report DC-6B N8224H , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 6 of 2019.
  16. ^ Aviation Safety Network, October 25, 1968