The Aviation Historian — January 2018

Issue No 22 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 75

television documentary featured SFO’s S-62A,
N975, landing at the Downtown San Francisco
Heliport, which, despite the recent work
undertaken, closed in 1969. At some point in
the second half of 1968, the Lafayette operation
moved to Buchanan Field (CCR) in Concord.
That year SFO Helicopter carried some 320,000
passengers, with more than 100 flights being
completed every day. However, it was a struggle
to remain profitable, particularly in the wake
of two fatal accidents involving the S-61s of
its fellow all-helicopter company Los Angeles
Airways in 1968, which saw the public lose
confidence in rotary-wing services.
In 1969 SFO lost its financial assistance from
one of its major trunkline partners and, after a
joint refinancing plan with TWA fell through,
the company went into bankruptcy in 1970,
cutting back its destinations to just four stations:
Marin, OAK, Berkeley Heliport and SFO. The
firm replaced Berkeley with Emeryville during
1973–74, the new heliport being situated atop
the Emeryville Holiday Inn. Services at this time
comprised 74 daily flights between SFO, OAK,
Marin and Emeryville, plus a sightseeing service
from SFO, which cost $8 per round trip.

BEELINE TO BANKRUPTCY
In 1973 an SFO advert proclaimed its service
“The Air Bridge” — a winking reference to the
heavy traffic which often clogged the area’s
freeways and bridges. Flight times from OAK
and Berkeley to SFO were 8min and 10min
respectively, the fare being $3.24 from OAK and
$8.10 from Berkeley. Weekday service comprised
70 daily flights, with 54 on Saturday, connecting
OAK and Berkeley with SFO.
The company occasionally deviated from its
passenger service by employing its S-61Ns on
heavylift operations, including the installation
of the UC Bank signage in Oakland in 1971, and
the placement of the Palos Verdes transmission
towers in 1975. In April 1976 the company
launched a promotional campaign — “The
BEELINE to your airline” — extolling the value

of the company’s shuttle services to and from

San Francisco and the Bay Area’s airports for

those connecting with onward flights. As a

promotional tie-in, the firm painted one of its

helicopters in a yellow-and-black “bumble

bee” livery. The airline was still listed in Flight’s

definitive World Airline Directory in April 1976,

although the following year ’s directory lists

SFO Helicopter as having ceased operations on

August 23, 1976, owing to a strike by mechanics.

It continues: “In November 1976 the company

filed a request for liquidation and voted to sell

its three S-61Ns to British Airways Helicopters”.

As a postscript, in 1983 a company of the same

name resumed weekday service, operating Bell

206 helicopters on 22 daily flights between SFO

and OAK. By 1984, the Oakland Convention

Center had been added to the routes but, as

happened so frequently with commercial

passenger-carrying helicopter operations, the

company struggled to survive and this later

incarnation folded in 1986.

ABOVE In 1976 S-61N N307Y (c/n 61-222) was put into an eye-catching yellow and black colour scheme with a
friendly face, in line with SFO Helicopter’s “Beeline” promotional campaign, which used the bee motif at RIGHT.
By December 1976, however, SFO Helicopter had collapsed and N307Y was sold to British Airways Helicopters to
become G-BEIC. It later went to Canada and was reportedly still working in Afghanistan in 2013 as N804AR.

ON JANUARY 26, 1972, 26-year-old Patrick

Henry McAlroy, armed with a 0·38in-calibre

revolver, took SFO employee Patrick Donovan

hostage at the Berkeley Heliport, demanding that

an SFO helicopter fly him to San Francisco

International Airport, where he intended to hijack

an airliner to Cuba. The police cordoned off and

surrounded the heliport, and a police sniper was

stationed beyond the airline offices. In the dark-

ness, the police trained searchlights on to the

scene. In a series of telephone calls Sgt Michael

Freeman of the SFPD managed to talk McAlroy out

of his plan, and Donovan was released without

injury. No helicopter was on the helipad during the

stand-off, and the inbound S-61 from Oakland was

held off by the airline on advice from the police. EB

HELICOPTER HIJACK!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Editor would like to thank

Eric Lian (visit http://www.henry1.comwww.henry1.comwww.henry1.com), Neil Harrison, David ), Neil Harrison, David

H. Stringer, and Julie Takata at SFO Museum for their

invaluable help with the preparation of this article

TAH

ARTWORK BY ERIC LIAN © 2018