Toledo Express Airport - History

History

• The airlines moved to the new airport around 1955; the April 1957 OAG shows 13 weekday departures on United, six TWA, six Delta, four Eastern and four Capital.

• On October 29, 1960, a chartered plane carrying the Cal Poly football team, hours after a loss to Bowling Green State University, crashed on takeoff at the Toledo Express Airport. Eighteen of the forty-eight people on board were killed, including sixteen players, the team's student manager, and a Cal Poly football booster.

• January 8, 1989, American Eagle Airlines started service between Toledo Express and Chicago O'Hare with four daily flights.

• In the early morning hours of February 15, 1992 a Burlington Air Express DC-8-63F (tail number N794AL) crashed 3 miles north of the runway into a wheat field just after executing its second missed approach. All four crew members perished and the aircraft, carrying mostly computer parts was completely destroyed. The cause of the crash is listed as "spatial disorientation" by the captain.

• 1997 is the busiest year in Toledo Express' history. 679,841 fly out of KTOL. Much of the growth is attributed to Air Tran Airways offering low cost flights to Orlando, Florida.

• December 15, 2006 - Security heightened when Toledo Express Airport noted there was a bomb threat. A note that was found in the commuter aircraft simply put it as 'bomb' and that was enough for the airport to take the necessary precautions. They later learned there was no explosives on board of the aircraft.

• January 12, 2007 - A bomb threat was called to 911 on a cell phone that American Eagle Flight 4359 flying out of the Toledo Express Airport had a bomb on board. This caused Toledo officials to heighten security at the airport. The plane had pushed away from the terminal and was getting ready to take off for Chicago-O'Hare when the 911 call was made at around 10:30 a.m. The plane had 30 passengers and three crew members on board, and no injuries were reported. The plane had sat isolated on a runway for about an hour before the fire trucks and other vehicles approached. The FBI and city fire officials did not know whether the caller was the one making the threat. The FBI are continuing to determine who sent the call in, but they also determined later in the day that the bomb threat was a hoax. American Eagle is a regional service for American Airlines.

• January 16, 2007 - A second bomb threat within four days at the Toledo Express Airport had been declared another hoax. The bomb threat was sent through e-mail to the airport.

• March 13, 2012 - Direct Air suspended operations from the airport. The charter carrier was subject to Chapter 7 liquidation on April 12, 2012.