Bar Harbor Airlines
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Bar Harbor Airlines was a comparatively large commuter airline from Bar Harbor, Maine.
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[edit] Early history
The company was founded by brothers Thomas and Joseph Caruso, as Bar Harbor Airways. They began flying charters and scenic flights from the Bar Harbor town dock. By 1950 they established a base of operations at the Bar Harbor airport.
Bar Harbor Airlines started flying in 1971, using Bar Harbor's airport as their hub. The airline's first route was from Bar Harbor to Boston.
The route proved so popular, especially among those from Maine who had daily jobs in Boston, that, by 1972, the airline expanded its route system by 350 percent, including seven cities and becoming an international airline, with a flight from Boston to Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
By 1974, the airline offered round-trip services between each city it served. Being a commuter airline made this easy, as each of their services consisted of short flights with quick turnaround times, and, with a large number of aircraft available, Bar Harbor had hubs in every city it served. During the 1970s, Bar Harbor Airlines primarily used Beechcraft 99 aircraft.
The airline also offered cargo service to the destinations it served. Their first of two accidents involved a cargo flight. Bar Harbor's first crash, on August 16, 1976, was on a cargo flight from Bangor International Airport in Bangor, Maine, to Bar Harbor. The airplane, registered N200WP, carried only one person, the pilot, and he was not injured.
Their second accident proved to be tragic: on August 25, 1985, the airline got some unwanted attention when one of its flights crashed while landing in Auburn, Maine. Two crew members and six passengers, including Samantha Reed Smith, died in the plane crash. A Beechcraft 99 was used for that flight. The plane's registration was N300WP.
[edit] The 1980s
Besides the fact that the Beechcraft that crashed in 1985 carried Samantha Smith, the airline did not receive many bad views from the press or public outside New England after that accident. That was partly due to the fact that commuter air carriers are generally known only around the communities they fly to and from. Bar Harbor Airlines decided to make Boston's Logan International Airport their only permanent base, aside from the Bar Harbor airport hub. Also during this decade, the airline bought some Convair, CASA 212 and ATR 42 turboprop aircraft, putting them in service immediately. Bar Harbor began to operate flights for other airlines, such as Continental, Delta and Eastern.
On October 12, 1988, a Bar Harbor Airlines ATR 42 airplane almost collided with Air Force One, carrying United States President Ronald Reagan, missing the Boeing 707 by less than 1,000 feet (300 m).
[edit] Bar Harbor's bankruptcy
Bar Harbor Airlines was one of many airlines that suffered economically from the Gulf War of 1991, alongside others such as TWA, Pan Am, and Eastern, which was one of Bar Harbor's contractor airlines. Two major contributing facts played a role in Bar Harbor's economic problems: the oil crisis during, and after, the war, and fears of terrorism because of it.
Only two months after Eastern stopped flying in January 1991, Bar Harbor ceased flying as well.
[edit] Livery
During the 1970s, the airline featured a rather simple, small yellow cheatline livery on otherwise all-white airplanes. Later, a bold livery of single red and blue stripes separated by large blue stars was adopted. As an Eastern Express carrier, Bar Harbor utilized a modified Eastern Airlines color scheme including flaired "hocky stick" livery on the tail.
