- Intermountain Airlines
Intermountain Airlines also known as Intermountain Aviation and Intermountain Airways was a
CIA airlinefront company . Intermountain performedcovert operation s for the CIA inSoutheast Asia and elsewhere during theVietnam War era.Intermountain's main base of operations was Marana Army Air Field near
Tucson ,Arizona . In1975 it was bought byEvergreen International Aviation , a company also believed by many to be connected with the CIA. Other CIA "proprietary" airlines such as Air America and Air Asia also operated out of Marana during the Vietnam War years.Intermountain's best known operation was "Operation Coldfeet" in which intelligence operatives were dropped in the Arctic to reconnoiter an abandoned
Soviet drift station and then recovered by using a Fulton Skyhook recovery system mounted on an IntermountainB-17 Flying Fortress . The modified B-17G, N809Z, can be seen at the end of the film "Thunderball", and had previously operated out ofClark Air Base , thePhilippines , in an all-black scheme for the CIA for agent insertions and other unspecified covert operations in Southeast Asia.Intermountain is also believed to have been involved in the delivery of a number of
A-26 Invader bombers to be flown byCuba n exile pilots supporting theBay of Pigs Invasion .During its years in operation Intermountain used several types of aircraft, including the Curtiss
C-46 Commando , theDe Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and theB-17 Flying Fortress .ee also
*
Pacific Corporation
*Pinal Airpark External links
* [http://www.airfields-freeman.com/AZ/Airfields_AZ_Tuscon_N.htm Information on Marana Army Airfield]
* [https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/95unclass/Leary.html Studies in Intelligence: Operation Coldfeet]References
* James Bamford, "Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency", Anchor Books(2002), ISBN 0-385-49908-6
* Brendan January, "The CIA", Franklin Watts ( 2003), ISBN 0-531-16600-7
* Scott A. Thompson, "Final Cut - The Post-War B-17 Flying Fortress: The Survivors", Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana, Revised Edition, August 2000, ISBN 1-57510-077-0
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