Mercer Airlines

In the mid-20th century, Dwight W. "Poddy" Mercer[1] established at least four airlines in the Los Angeles area: Poddy Mercer was a former South Dakota auto dealer[2] who moved to the Los Angeles area during World War II and became an instructor pilot at Cal-Aero Academy.

[9] However, the airline got on the wrong side of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transport.

This airline immediately suffered a crash, non-fatal but the Lockheed L-10 Electra aircraft was destroyed (see Accidents).

From April 1964, Mercer Enterprises flew scheduled weekend service from Burbank to San Diego Brown Field,[19] suspended in 1971.

[20] In 1969, Mercer Enterprises transferred its intrastate economic certificate, conferred on it by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), to a corporate entity, it having been a sole proprietorship to that point.

[22] In the second half of the 1960s, Mercer Enterprises secured a US Navy contract to fly from Naval Air Station Point Mugu to San Nicolas Island.

However, the airline was still operating under the Mercer identity when, in February 1976, it suffered a high profile crash of a DC-6 at a golf course in Van Nuys, California on approach to the airport with the death of all three cockpit crew (see Accidents).