Southern Air Transport (SAT), based in Miami, Florida, was, in its final incarnation, a cargo airline.

The carrier was also known for its role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s, during which SAT transported arms to Iran and to the US-backed mercenary army in Central America known as the Contras, which were fighting the revolutionary Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

The initial period of activity lasted from February 1947 to January 1949, when Moor suspended operations to work for the Venezuelan carrier RANSA.

[14] The CIA apparently also influenced a CAB award to provide the carrier with authority to fly civilian charters to Asia[15] to support the Vietnam war.

A 1965 advertisement in The Miami News used the tag line "You can't measure Southern Air's service" and noted its capabilities in shipping livestock, household goods and cars.

[29] The L-100s ranged widely, one trip in 1971 traveling over 100,000 miles in 310 flight hours using five separate crews to Europe, Greenland, the Solomon Islands, Australia and within the United States before returning to Miami.

[28] To get irate competitors off its back, SAT first offered to give up its certification to fly commercial charters in the Pacific and Latin America.

[34] However, it ultimately agreed to give up its supplemental certification entirely, becoming an uncertificated carrier, which had the effect of removing it from CAB jurisdiction.

[38] As part of Oliver North's activities to trade arms for hostages with Iran and to support the contra rebellion in Nicaragua, Southern Air carried four loads of US weapons bound for Iran from the US to Israel, and on the return flights carried weapons destined for the US-backed right-wing Contra rebels in Nicaragua from Portugal.

He was the logistics officer for airlifts of weapons and supplies from the Ilopango air base, in El Salvador, to the jungle hide-outs of the Contras.

Rodriguez did not notify the Defense Department or the CIA but rather attempted to get word about the missing C-123K to Donald Gregg, the National Security Advisor for Vice President George H. W. Bush.

Wanda Palacios had witnessed in 1983-1985 in Barranquilla, the arrival of SAT planes loaded with weapons for the cartel, which would then send them to the Contras.

Palacio stated that Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez himself explained to her the guns-for-drugs deal with the CIA to supply the Contras.

At one time, SAT Hercules aircraft were the sole food supply for the refugee camps in the Juba, Sudan area, during the north-south war.

SAT aircraft were based in Papua New Guinea, the U.K, and very commonly in various African countries, as well as other offshore locations, with crews rotating in and out as demand required.

SAT consistently performed challenging tasks on a wide variety of contracts, many in disturbed areas such as Somalia, both prior to and after the Battle of Mogadishu.

Chevron was totally dependent on SAT L-100s, as no roads reached the massive oil recovery operation near Lake Kutubu.

Papua New Guinea provides some of the world's most challenging flying conditions, due both to the rapidly changing tropical monsoons that sweep the island nation, and the rugged terrain of the country.

Governor George Voinovich stated: “I am extremely pleased to welcome Southern Air Transport to Ohio, as it will be the first airline to have its world headquarters located at Rickenbacker Airport.

This will help Columbus tremendously in becoming a world-class inland port.”[42] In late 1998 it tried to merge with other aviation companies, but it filed for bankruptcy on October 1 in Columbus, Ohio - the same day that the CIA Inspector General released a report detailing allegations of Southern Air Transport's involvement in drug trafficking in connection with US-backed and funded right-wing Contras in Nicaragua.