Evergreen International Airlines

The airline was established by Delford Smith (founder and owner) and began operations in 1960 as Evergreen Helicopters. It acquired the operating certificate of Johnson Flying Service and merged it with Intermountain Airlines (a CIA front company) from Pacific Corporation (a CIA front company) in 1975 to form Evergreen International Airlines. The holding company, Evergreen International Aviation, formed in 1979, wholly owned the airline.[2]

Evergreen serviced government agencies, in 1980 Evergreen International Airlines flew the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi around and shortly thereafter ran mysterious missions to El Salvador and Nicaragua.[6]

One of Evergreen's Boeing 747 airplanes (registered N473EV, which suffered an in-flight engine separation in 1993)[7] starred in the 1990 action film Die Hard 2.[8] Additionally, Evergreen Boeing 727s were featured in numerous films including Donnie Brasco with Al Pacino, and The Rookie with Clint Eastwood.

On November 9, 2013, it was announced that Evergreen Airlines would close on November 30, 2013 due to financial troubles.[9][10] This information was initially denied by Evergreen, but shortly afterwards admitted:[11] "Evergreen International Airlines flew its last flight Monday [December 2, 2013] Mike Hines, chairman of its parent company board, acknowledged..."[12]

Evergreen also owned a museum and waterpark, called the Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark. This remains open, despite the company's bankruptcy. One of Evergreen's 747-100s (registration N481EV) is mounted on the roof of the waterpark, serving as the housing for the top of four of the waterpark's slides.

On December 31, 2013, Evergreen International Airlines filed a Chapter 7 petition in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. The bankruptcy filing lists seven entities as submitting the Chapter 7 petition: Evergreen Aviation Ground Logistics Enterprise, Evergreen Defense and Security Services, Evergreen International Airlines, Evergreen International Aviation, Evergreen Systems Logistics, Evergreen Trade, and Supertanker Services.[13]

Evergreen International Airlines operated the following freight services (as of December 2012):

• Domestic scheduled destinations: Anchorage, New York, Chicago.
• International scheduled destinations: Tokyo, Nagoya, Hong Kong, Shanghai.

An Evergreen Boeing 747-200F taxiing at Frankfurt Hahn Airport, Germany. (2010)

An Evergreen Boeing 747-200F taxiing at Frankfurt Hahn Airport, Germany. (2010)

Boeing 747-230F landing at Stockholm - Arlanda

An Evergreen Boeing 747-200C. (2007)

The Evergreen International Airlines fleet consisted of the following aircraft (as of December 2012):[14]

Evergreen previously operated three Boeing Dreamlifters to transport the Boeing 787 parts to Boeing, but the contract was given to Atlas Air in September 2010. This was due to Boeing's rescheduled delivery of the Boeing 747-8Fs ordered by Atlas Air to increase their current fleet. The "Dreamlifter" is the logistic support aircraft for Boeing's global Boeing 787 Dreamliner production.[15] The company was also scheduled to operate the SOFIA Boeing 747SP aircraft for NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA (in the silicon valley near San Jose).[16]

The airline modified a Boeing 747-100 for aerial firefighting, receiving final certification from the FAA in October 2006.[17] Compared to existing large water bombers and airtankers, the Evergreen Supertanker was planned to offer at least seven times more fire retardant capacity.[18] In December, 2010, Israel hired Evergreen's fire-fighting aircraft to assist in firefighting efforts of the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire.[19]

In August 2007, Evergreen announced that it had ordered 3 Boeing 747-400BCFs to upgrade its commercial operations, with deliveries in summer 2009.[20] In March 2010, the orders had not yet been delivered. In December 2012, Evergreen ceased operations of the last three 747-200s; they are parked at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.

• March 18, 1989: Evergreen International Airlines Flight 17, a DC-9 was on a cargo flight from Kelly Air Force Base outside San Antonio to Tinker Air Force Base outside of Oklahoma City, with a stop at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth. As the plane was departing, the cargo door on the plane opened; the pilot immediately requested emergency return to Carswell. As the plane was approaching on base leg, the cargo door fully opened, which caused the plane to yaw to the left and right, and then roll, until crashing near Saginaw in an inverted position. Both pilots on board were killed. The investigation found that when closing the cargo door, the copilot did not close it fully, but since the locked and latched indicators were applied incorrectly, the copilot thought the door was fully locked.[22]
• March 31, 1993: Lee waves were believed responsible for the in-flight separation of the #2 engine on an Evergreen Boeing 747-100 operating for Japan Airlines as Japan Airlines Flight 46E, registration: N473EV, near Anchorage, Alaska.[23] The plane involved was used in the movie Die Hard 2. The plane was since repaired, then flew until 2001.
• September 1997: Fines were imposed by the Australian civil aviation authority for dumping fuel while flying over Sydney.

• List of defunct airlines of the United States