Intermountain Aviation

Intermountain Airlines, also known as Intermountain Aviation and Intermountain Airways, was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) airline front company. Intermountain performed covert operations for the CIA in Southeast Asia and elsewhere during the Vietnam War era.

History
Intermountain's main base of operations was Marana Army Air Field near Tucson, Arizona. In 1975, it was acquired by Evergreen International Aviation, a company that has acknowledged connections with the CIA. Other CIA "proprietary" airlines such as Air America and Air Asia also operated out of Marana during the Vietnam War years.

During its years in operation, Intermountain used several types of aircraft including the Curtiss C-46 Commando, the Lockheed L-188 Electra, the de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou and DHC-6 Twin Otter.

One of Intermountain's covert missions was Project Coldfeet, in which intelligence operatives were dropped in the Arctic to reconnoiter an abandoned Soviet drift station and then recovered using a Fulton Skyhook recovery system mounted on an Intermountain B-17 Flying Fortress. The modified B-17G, civilian registration N809Z (now N207EV), had previously operated out of Clark Air Base in the Philippines in an all-black scheme for the CIA for agent insertions and other unspecified covert operations in Southeast Asia. The B-17 and its skyhook appeared at the end of the James Bond film Thunderball.

Intermountain is alleged 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.