Command Airways (South Africa)

IATA ICAO Call sign CT CAH Command
Founded	1977
Hubs	JNB-OR Tambo International Airport * HCS-Sandton City Heliport * HPR-Pretoria Central Heliport
Focus cities	HBL-Babelegi Industrial Heliport * HIC-Iscor Heliport * HLA-Lanseria Airport
Fleet size	7
Destinations	6
Parent company	Dynamic Technology
Headquarters	Johannesburg,South Africa
Key people	DL Van Dyke (founder & CEO), FG Baylis (founder)

Command Airways was an airline based inJohannesburg,South Africa, operating scheduled services from 6 September 1977 to 30 June 1980 and thereafter non-scheduled services only.

Founded on 30 June 1977 and based atOR Tambo International Airport (then known asJan Smuts Airport) (JNB),Johannesburg, Command Airways was the first scheduled helicopter airline inSouth Africa and on the African continent.^[1] Services betweenPretoria Central Heliport (HPR) andJohannesburg began on 6 September 1977.^[2] Within a short period, the route system expanded to include Babelegi Industrial Park Heliport (HBL),Iscor Heliport (HIC) andLanseria Airport (HLA).^{[citation needed]}

Services linkingSandton City Heliport (HCS) andJohannesburg (JNB) were inaugurated on 19 February 1978. Passenger demand rose quickly and authority to increase flight frequency toSandton City Heliport was given on 9 April 1979.

From 1 September 1979, the carrier allied with Magnum Airlines Ltd and rebranded asMagnum Airlines Helicopters.Sandton City Heliport became an active hub for the airline's scheduled services as well as for other charter and industrial aid operators. The noise of intensified operations was a major public concern and a high-profile media focus. Despite joint attempts by helicopter operators to mitigate their environmental impact, the city council orderedSandton City Heliport closed effective from 30 June 1980.

The airline again operated as Command Airways, ceased scheduled operations and refocussed on developing its helicopter charter market.^[3] Although no longer part of the Magnum Airlines alliance, it maintained other cooperative agreements.

• 4 August 1978: Command Flight 9501, using aBell 206B JetRanger II, experienced an engine failure en route to the filming site of the movieZulu Dawn inNatal Province with the pilot, the Executive Producer, the Executive Producer's wife and son, and an assistant on board. A successfulautorotation was performed to a dry riverbed. There were no injuries and damage was limited to the alighting gear. The flameout was later determined to have been caused by a sheared idler gear in the accessory gearbox.
• 20 May 1980: Command Flight 9611, using aBell 206B-3 JetRanger III, crashed while performing a low-level filming sequence in a railway shunting yard nearGermiston,Johannesburg. One passenger, a television producer, was killed and four persons were injured including the pilot, one actor and one cameraman aboard the helicopter and one actor on the ground.

The Command Airways fleet comprised the following aircraft:

• 1Bell 206B JetRanger II (ZS-PAW)
• 2Bell 206B JetRanger III (ZS-HHD, ZS-HHE)
• 1Bell 206L LongRanger (ZS-HGG)
• 2Bell 206L-1 LongRanger II (ZS-HJN, ZS-HJR)
• 1Bell 222 (ZS-HJK)

• Van Dyke, Capt Donald L.Fortune Favours the Bold: An African Aviation Odyssey. Philadelphia:Xlibris, 2008.ISBN 978-1-4363-9314-0.^{[self-published source?]}

• http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/ct1.htm Command Airways Timetable
• http://www.airtimes.com/cgat/indexza.htm Carriers in South Africa
• https://web.archive.org/web/20080512040322/http://www.utdallas.edu/library/collections/speccoll/hacpdf/Guttery.pdf Ben Guttery History of Aviation Collection: African Airlines

• Airlines of South Africa
• Airlines established in 1977
• Companies based in Johannesburg

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2020
• Use South African English from August 2012
• All Wikipedia articles written in South African English
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• Articles with unsourced statements from February 2020
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• Articles with self-published sources from January 2018