Air Illinois
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| Founded | 1970 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1983 (Grounded 1983, and filed for bankruptcy in 1984) | ||||||
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| Headquarters | Carbondale, Illinois | ||||||
Air Illinois (IATA: UX) was a regional airline based in Carbondale, Illinois.
History
Founded in 1970 in
In December 1977, Air Illinois purchased the small
In July 1982 the company leased two British Aircraft Corp.
The crash
In October 1983, Air Illinois Flight 710 flying between Chicago, Illinois and Carbondale, Illinois via Springfield, Illinois crashed in poor weather near Pinckneyville, Illinois.[2] Three crew members and seven passengers lost their lives.
Several weeks after the crash the FAA grounded the company and began official hearings into the crash. The cause was determined to be pilot error after the plane's generators failed two minutes after takeoff yet the crew elected to "push on" to their destination, crashing in a pasture when the plane lost all electrical power.
Following this, the company lost $1 million.
Cities served
Air Illinois served the following destinations during its existence; however, not all of these destinations were served at the same time. Those destinations noted in bold received BAC One-Eleven jet service.[5][6]
- Alton, Illinois
- Bloomington, Indiana
- Burlington, Iowa
- Cape Girardeau, Missouri
- Carbondale, Illinois - airline headquarters
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Centralia, Illinois
- Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
- O'Hare Airport(ORD)
- Columbia, Missouri
- Columbus, Nebraska
- Decatur, Illinois
- Evansville, Indiana
- Jacksonville, Illinois
- Jefferson City, Missouri
- Jonesboro, Arkansas
- Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Mount Vernon, Illinois
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Natchez, Mississippi
- Paducah, Kentucky
- Peoria, Illinois
- Quincy, Illinois
- Springfield, Illinois
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Waterloo, Iowa
Fleet
Air Illinois was unique in the fact that during most of its existence it did not operate any aircraft that had been manufactured in the U.S. The majority of its aircraft were built either in the
- 2 – Beechcraft 99A Airliner
- 4 – British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven (only jet aircraft type operated by the airline)
- 6 – de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter
- 7 – Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream
- 2 – Hawker Siddeley HS 748
See also
References
- ^ http://www.departedflights.com, April 15, 1975 Official Airline Guide (OAG), Chicago Meigs Field flight schedules
- ^ airdisaster.com[usurped]
- ^ "Air Illinois Sale". The New York Times. 27 January 1984.
- ^ a b "Flights Halted on Air Illinois". The New York Times. 17 April 1984.
- ^ http://www.timetableimages.com, Air Illinois system timetables
- ^ http://www.departedflights.com, Air Illinois route maps
External links
- List of North American airlines A-M — brief mention
