Kingsport Air!
Kingsport's Homegrown Passenger Airline, Southeast Airlines
Peggy
Norris passed away last week. Peggy was the daughter of Mason-Dixon co-founder
E. Ward King. I had talked to her a couple of years ago about getting together
for an interview about her dad’s airline, Southeast.
But
my column went out of business before we could have our chat.
Do
you remember Southeast, Kingsport’s own airline. It provided passenger and
cargo service exclusively to Tennessee airports. (See map)
But
Southeast ran afoul of government regulation, and also to a lot of pressure
from other, bigger commercial airlines, and went out of business for good in
1960 after almost four years in service.
Over
the years some have speculated that the beginning of the end was when a
Southeast plane with ten people aboard crashed into Holston Mountain.
There
have also been conspiracy theories about the crash because one of the
passengers was former head of research at Eastman, and the inventor of dry ice,
Rudolf Hasche.
I think
this story from the time of the shutdown tells the actual story.
But
I sure wish I had gone ahead with the interview with Peggy to get her thoughts
on Kingsport’s airline.
August
4, 1960
Rejection
Ends Last Hope For Southeast
By
FRANK CREASY
The
last thread of hope that Southeast Airlines might resume local service across
Tennessee was broken Wednesday.
The
Civil Aeronautics Board – in another of its incredible decisions – refused
Governor Buford Ellington’s appeal for a review of the case.
On
Tuesday governor Ellington requested the CAB grant him, members of Congress,
mayors, presidents of Chambers of Commerce and others an audience on behalf of
“air transportation for our state.”
The
governor's telegram to CAB Chairman Whitney Gilliland was prompted by
Southeast’s suspension of operations Sunday night. Southeast was forced to stop
its scheduled flights because, according to President E. Ward King, it was
losing about $2,000 per day without subsidy. That situation had existed for
31/2 years. During that 3 1/2 years southeast has waged continuous fight for
federal certification, But, the CAB awarded the Tennessee routes to Southern
Airways of Atlanta.
Southern
is now in its ninth week of a pilot’s strike and has not set up a schedule for
the routes previously served by Southeast.
The
rejection of Gov. Ellington's plea for CAB review was received in Nashville
yesterday afternoon. Here is the text of the CAB chairman's telegram of
refusal:
“Records
show Southeast was denied certification and Southern granted certification
after extended hearings including consideration of the position of affected
communities, and the decision has been affirmed upon judicial review. The board
regrets temporary inability of Southern to provide service, but the situation
is not one within the board's control. Under the circumstances we believe the
suggested conference would not be appropriate.”
Gov.
Ellington had no comment on the rejection, However, last week he said if the
CAB failed to re-open the case Tennessee congressmen should seek a
Congressional investigation of the action,
Southeast
president King declined comment other than to say he was very disappointed.
John
Roberts, Southeast’s vice president of operations, said the Kingsport based
airline would make no further attempt to resume business.
“We
have consulted with our attorneys and there appears no legal recourse,” Roberts
said. “There’s nothing left but to close the doors at southeast.”
BONUS
POST
If
you saw the Oscars last Sunday you may remember the woman with the shaved head
who won for Best Documentary (“American Factory” from the Obama’s production
company at Netflix). She ended her acceptance speech with “Workers of the world
unite!”
Now
do you remember?
That
woman was Julia Reichert who is suffering from bladder cancer.
It
was, as the announcer noted, her fourth nomination and first Oscar.
I
remember her first nomination. It was in 1978. I covered it for the Dayton
Daily News. I wrote about her several times over the two years I was in Dayton
but nothing was more memorable than covering her at the Oscars.
Here
are the three stories I wrote about my Hollywood adventure. That was my first,
last and only time covering the Oscars.
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