Everything about Norontair totally explained
NorOntair is a
defunct airline from
Canada that operated its first scheduled flight
October 18,
1971 and its last flight
March 29,
1996. The cities served included Dash 8 service to
Kapuskasing,
Timmins,
North Bay,
Sudbury,
Sault Ste. Marie,
Thunder Bay,
Fort Frances and
Winnipeg.
Twin Otter service was provided to
Hearst,
Chapleau,
Earlton,
Elliot Lake,
Geraldton,
Gore Bay,
Hornepayne,
Kirkland Lake,
Terrace Bay,
Pickle Lake,
Red Lake,
Kenora,
Atikokan,
Sioux Lookout, and
Wawa.
According to the Ontario government
Hansard, the airline was the air wing of an
Ontario government company called the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (
ONTC
). The airline was originally created by the
Bill Davis government to create east-west links across the
northern Ontario economy. ONTC started by subcontracted flying operations to various airlines including Bradley Air Service (
First Air),
Austin Airways, Air-Dale Ltd and OnAir (taken over by
Bearskin Airlines). Air-Dale Ltd. based in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario was the airline's main operations base. Two Dehavilland Dash 8-102 aircraft and 6 Dash 6-300 Twin Otters were based in the Soo. Two additional Twin Otters were based in Thunder Bay, Ontario and were operated by Bearskin Airlines crews but painted in full NorOntair colours. In its final years, ONTC bought Air-Dale Ltd and operated all the remaining routes until the service was discontinued.
In
1996, the newly elected provincial government of
Mike Harris moved to close down the airline by removing subsidies.
NorOntair was the first airline in the world to order and take delivery of
Bombardier's
de Havilland Canada Dash 8 Series 100, on
October 23,
1984, operated by Air-Dale Ltd. The first Dash 8 in commercial service anywhere in the world wore NorOntair colours and was registered C-GJCB. This aircraft was number 6 off the assembly line and remained in active service until the closure of the company flying up to 14 hours a day across Northern Ontario. A second Dash 8 joined the fleet shortly after the first and was registered C-GPYD. This second Dash 8 was seriously damaged on approach into Sault Ste Marie one day. Shortly after the company took delivery of the aircraft, it landed hard during a cockpit crew training flight. The hard landing caused the aircraft's landing gear to collapse causing significant damage to the newly acquired plane. Of particular concern to the airline and to Dehavilland Canada at the time was the fact that the crash caused one of the engine's propeller blades to violently break away from the engine housing. The blades penetrated the cabin wall of the aircraft, travelled through Row 2 of the aircraft interior and exited through the other side of the cabin sidewall on the opposite side. Given that the aircraft was on a training flight, no passengers were onboard. The flight crew escaped the aircraft without injury. The aircraft was removed from service and after months of structural repairs and refurbishment, was returned to active service.
NorOntair Operations Manager: Glen WATTY (YAM)
NorOntair Chief Pilot: Captain Robert BEAULAC (YAM)
NorOntair Chief Flight Attendant: Patty GRAY (YAM)
NorOntair Training Captains: Captain Ian GOLD, Captain Steve DANIELS
==
Further Information
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