Starting as a home-built transport for the Spanish military in the early 1970s, a commercial variant took to the sky in 1975. The boxy twin-turboprop would typically seat 21 passengers with good headroom and legroom – but as the airplane was unpressurized, was limited to short-haul service. It was seen infrequently in North America, but its rugged frame and sport-utility versatility kept it in production (albeit at low rates) in Spain from 1971 all the way to 2012 – with a licensed variation still being produced in Indonesia to the current day.
The unique aircraft was only operated on behalf of Northwest by one operator, Fischer Brothers Aviation. FBA started in 1951 as Galion Commuter Service, an air commuter division of a Fixed Base Operator in its namesake community in Ohio, connecting that town with Marion and Mansfield to Cleveland using a Stinson 108.
By 1963, the carrier had adopted the FBA name and was flying the deHavilland Dove on its Ohio shuttle service. And in 1969, FBA was inaugurated into the Allegheny Commuter network. Riley Herons were added, and in 1979 a branch route was extended to Detroit and Flint, Michigan.
From mid-1980 through 1982, FBA modernized its fleet with four new CASA 212s, a Shorts 330 and two Shorts 360s. In late 1985 the carrier agreed to leave the USAir network and become a Northwest Airlink affiliate, feeding NW’s flights at Cleveland and Detroit. FBA would swap out its Shorts with new Dornier 228 19-seat turboprops, and keep the CASA 212s.
The Republic-Northwest merger ultimately led to Simmons Airlines being the NWA Airlink provider at Detroit, and FBA’s contract ended in March 1987.
The CASA 212 tragically capped the end of Airlink service: a training flight crash in Ohio on February 10, 1987 killed three crew, and another crash on March 4, 1987 at Detroit (NW flight 2268 inbound from Cleveland) spilled onto the commuter ramp – nearly striking the terminal – killing nine and injuring 13.
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