Intermountain Airlines
Intermountain Airlines also known as Intermountain Aviation and Intermountain Airways was a
CIA airline
front company. Intermountain performed
covert operations for the CIA in
Southeast Asia and elsewhere during the
Vietnam War era.
Intermountain's main base of operations was
Marana Army Air Field near
Tucson,
Arizona. In
1975 it was bought by
Evergreen International Aviation, a company also belived by many to be connected with the CIA. Other CIA "proprietary" airlines such as
Air America and
Air Asia also operated out of Marana during the Vietnam War years.
Intermountain's best known operation was "Operation Coldfeet" in which intelligence operatives were dropped in the Arctic to reconnoiter an abandoned
Soviet drift station and then recovered by using a
Fulton Skyhook recovery system mounted on an Intermountain
B-17.
Intermountain is also believed to have been involved in the delivery of a number of
A-26 Invader bombers to be flown by
Cuban exile pilots supporting the
Bay of Pigs Invasion.
During its years in operation Intermountain used several types of aircraft, including the Curtiss
C-46 Commando, the
De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and the
B-17 Flying Fortress.
*
Information on Marana Army Airfield*[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/95unclass/Leary.html Studies in Intelligence: Operation Coldfeet]
*James Bamford, "Body of Secrets : Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency", Anchor Books(2002), ISBN 0385499086
*Brendan January, "The CIA", Franklin Watts ( 2003), ISBN 0531166007
