Air South was a regional airline operating out of Atlanta Municipal Airport. Founded as Nationwide Airlines Southeast in 1968, it served a variety of destinations in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. Its all-propeller aircraft fleet included the Martin 4-0-4 as well as the Beechcraft 99, one of which crashed near Monroe, Georgia on July 6, 1969.
Turboprop equipment was acquired during the early 1970s in the form of Fairchild F-27 (see heading image) and Beech 99 twin-engined airliners.
The crash of Air South Flight 168 was flown with a Beech 99 and crashed near Monroe, Georgia. All 14 aboard were killed. The Passenger list is as follows:
Erwin Wood, Mapleton, GA/Pilot Thomas Wagner, Forest Park, GA/Co-Pilot Christopher Gibson, Spartanburg, SC Nancy Griffin, Sumter, SC Lee Hobart, Pontiac, IL Mark Swaggart, Phoenix, AZ Gregory Damron, Richmond, VA Reba Roberts, Anderson, SC William Vogel, Baltimore, MD Col. James Winterbottome, Shaw AFB, SC SSgt John Bickel, Shaw AFB, SC A1C Michael Flynn, Shaw AFB, SC Sgt Doulgas Swickard, Shaw AFB, SC
The aircraft was en route from Atlanta to Sumter, SC
In 1975 it was acquired along with Shawnee Airlines by Florida Airlines. Florida Airlines went into rapid decline almost immediately with the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act and ceased operations in 1978.
Read more about Air South: 1994-1997, Other Airlines By Same Name
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