Proteus Airlines was a French regional airline with its head offices in Saint-Apollinaire,

Côte-d'Or Côte-d'Or (; literally, "Golden Slope") is a département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 534,124.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, near

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, and in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

. Founded in 1986, it remained operational until 2001.

History

The airline was originally established in 1986 as Proteus Air System. In May 1996, it began scheduled services under its new name Proteus Airlines. In 1997 the airline acquired a regional airline, Air Transport Pyrénées and its fleet of Beech 1900 and

Beech King Air The Beechcraft King Air is a line of American utility aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The King Air line comprises a number of twin-turboprop models that have been divided into two families. The Model 90 and 100 series developed in the 1960s ...

, while in August signed a franchise agreement with

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global air ...

. In October 1999 Proteus acquired another regional airline,

Flandre Air Flandre Air (IATA: IX, ICAO: FRS) was a French regional airline headquartered at Lille Airport and in Lesquin, France, near Lille.Regional Airlines A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...

merged into Régional, itself merged into

HOP! Air France Hop, formerly branded HOP!, is a French regional airline operating flights on behalf of its parent company Air France. The airline was founded on 21 December 2012http://www.verif.com/societe/HOP!-790151716/ after the merger of Airlin ...

in 2013.

Incidents and accidents

On July 30, 1998, a Beechcraft 1900D, operating as

Proteus Airlines Flight 706 Proteus Airlines Flight 706 was a scheduled commuter flight from Lyon, France to Lorient, France. On July 30, 1998, the Beechcraft 1900D operating the flight collided in mid-air with a Cessna 177 over Quiberon Bay. This accident was known as ...

from

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

, was hit by a privately-owned

Cessna 177RG The Cessna 177 Cardinal is a light single-engine, high-wing general aviation aircraft produced by Cessna. It was intended to replace the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. First announced in 1967, it was produced from 1968 to 1978.Christy, Joe: ''The Complet ...

over

Quiberon Bay Quiberon Bay (french: Baie de Quiberon) is an area of sheltered water on the south coast of Brittany. The bay is in the Morbihan département. Geography The bay is roughly triangular in shape, open to the south with the Gulf of Morbihan to t ...

, killing all 15 people on board both aircraft. The biggest contributing factor to the accident was the crew of the 1900D electing to take a detour to fly around the SS ''Norway''. While finishing the sightseeing pass over the ship and shifting their attention to landing preparations, the crew did not use the ''see and avoid'' concept that was part of the

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

they were operating under. In addition, the pilot of the Cessna had neglected to turn on his plane's transponder, effectively making the aircraft invisible to radar systems on the ground.

References

External links

Proteus Airlines
(Archive) {{Airlines of France Defunct airlines of France Airlines established in 1986 Airlines disestablished in 2001 1986 establishments in France French companies disestablished in 2001 French companies established in 1986