St. Lucia Airways Limited was a privately owned company founded in 1975. General and tourist flights were operated mainly to

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

and

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, but also extended throughout the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. There was also a shuttle service between the two St. Lucia airports of Vigie and Hewannora. A

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

was acquired in 1982 for cargo charter work. Head office was listed as PO Box 253, Castries, St. Lucia, West Indies.

History

During the 1986 arms for hostages scandal,

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

Col. Oliver North arranged for shipments of Raytheon

MIM-23 HAWK The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK ("Homing all the way killer") is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off range and altitude capability for a much sm ...

antiaircraft missiles to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. "The

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

's air branch suggested a proprietary which did

clandestine Clandestine may refer to: * Secrecy, the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals * Clandestine operation, a secret intelligence or military activity Music and entertainmen ...

work for the agency - St. Lucia Airways." The CIA congressional relations man, Clair George, was unavailable, so

Duane Clarridge Duane Ramsdell "Dewey" Clarridge (April 16, 1932 – April 9, 2016) was an American senior operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supervisor for more than 30 years. Clarridge was the chief of the Latin American division f ...

, the

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

division chief, checked with the acting Deputy Director of Operations, Ed Juchniewicz, who told North that, in addition to its proprietary work, St. Lucia operated as a commercial venture. So it was available to anyone for special charter operations. "North arranged for St. Lucia to provide two

s. They were able to carry HAWK antiaircraft missiles to

, where the HAWKs were transferred to Israeli planes for transit to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. North was running the operation through a Swiss bank account, Lake Resources, Inc. (number 386-430-22-1 at

Crédit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all Financial centre, major financial centers around the w ...

). For coming up with an airline on short notice, North told ice Adm. John Poindexter on their interoffice computer, 'Clarridge deserves a medal.'".

Fleet

In 1982 the firm operated three aircraft. *

Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander is a British light utility aircraft and regional airliner designed and originally manufactured by Britten-Norman of the United Kingdom. Still in production, the Islander is one of the best-selling commercial airc ...

, manufacturers serial number 612, registration J6-LAS, formerly registered VQ-LAS *

Boeing 707-323C The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first ...

, manufacturers serial number 18689, registration J6-SLF, formerly registered G-WIND. * Lockheed L-100-20 manufacturers serial number 382-4129, registration J6-SLO, formerly registered C-FPWN

References

External links

{{commons category, St. Lucia Airways Central Intelligence Agency front organizations Companies of Saint Lucia

History

Fleet

See also

References

External links