Red Baron Airlines

Red Baron Airlines

Founded	June 11, 1979
Ceased operations	June 13, 1980
Hubs	Palm Beach International Airport
Destinations	Gainesville, FL, Tallahassee, FL
Parent company	Roberson Air Inc.
Headquarters	West Palm Beach, FL
Key people	Clive E. Roberson, M.D. and Rudolph P. Scheerer, M.D.

Red Baron Airlines was a small U.S. regional airline based at Palm Beach International Airport and operating solely within Florida. It was started as a joint venture between Clive E. Roberson and Rudolph P. Scheerer.^[1] It was a member of the Commuter Airline Association of America. It offered weekday flights starting in the morning from West Palm Beach, Florida and stopping in Gainesville, Florida before continuing to Tallahassee, Florida. In the afternoon the route was the reverse. The airline was expecting to benefit from the large number of students that would travel to/from the University of Florida in Gainesville and Florida State University in Tallahassee.^[2] In May 1980 a Federal Aviation Administration Special Investigative Team found discrepancies in the company's maintenance manuals and recommended that a recertification be required. On May 23, 1980 the company voluntarily ceased operations while the discrepancies were corrected. An on-scene inspection verified these corrections and its air carrier certificate was returned on May 30, 1980. On June 13, 1980 Scheerer Air acquired 100% of Roberson Air Inc.^[3]

The airline later became Florida Commuter Airlines. The airline name changed to Southern Airlines^[4] in 1981 shortly after their Douglas DC-3 crashed in the Bahamas on September 12, 1980.^[5]

References

1. NTSB Accident Report
2. Red Baron Airlines Timetable and route map images
3. NTSB Report
4. Airline History by David Lyall
5. Accident Database