Key Lime Air is a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

with corporate headquarters at

Centennial Airport Centennial Airport is a public use airport owned by the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area, 15 nautical miles (17 mi, 28 km) southeast of downtown Denver, Colorado, United States. L ...

in Englewood, Colorado, within the Denver metropolitan area. Established in 1997, Key Lime Air operates scheduled air service, various types of public and private charter (under its Denver Air Connection brand), and

United Parcel Service United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializing in telegraphs, UPS has grown t ...

cargo feeder operations.

Denver Air Connection

Key Lime Air operates FAR Part 121 scheduled regional flights through its Denver Air Connection brand from Denver International Airport. Additionally, Key Lime operates public

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

services under FAR Part 135 from Denver's

Cargo operations

Key Lime Air operates on-demand cargo flights using

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in San ...

aircraft. Cargo operations carry UPS overnight and express delivery packages throughout

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

, and

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Fleet

The Key Lime Air fleet includes:

Incidents and accidents

* December 30, 2014 – A Key Lime Air

Cessna 404 The Cessna Model 404 Titan is an American twin-engined, light aircraft built by Cessna Aircraft. It was that company's largest twin piston-engined aircraft at the time of its development in the 1970s. Its US military designation is C-28, and ...

aircraft registration An aircraft registration is a code unique to a single aircraft, required by international convention to be marked on the exterior of every civil aircraft. The registration indicates the aircraft's country of registration, and functions much lik ...

''N404MG'', operating as Flight LYM182, had an engine fail shortly after takeoff from

, Englewood, Colorado, and the pilot was unable to successfully return to the airport. The airplane was destroyed and the pilot and sole occupant were killed. The reason for the engine failure could not be conclusively determined, but the pilot did not properly secure the failed engine, making it more difficult to continue flying. * January 21, 2015 – Key Lime Air Piper PA-31 ''N66906'', on a cargo flight to Colby, Kansas, crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Goodland Municipal Airport after one engine failed and the other engine lost power. The aircraft struck power lines before crashing in a field; the pilot and sole aircraft occupant were not injured but the aircraft sustained serious damage. The crash was attributed to

fuel starvation In an internal combustion engine, fuel starvation is the failure of the fuel system to supply sufficient fuel to allow the engine to run properly, for example due to blockage, vapor lock, contamination by water, malfunction of the fuel pump or in ...

caused by the pilot's poor fuel management; a contributing factor was pilot fatigue. * December 5, 2016 – Key Lime Air Fairchild Swearingen SA-227DC Metro ''N765FA'', operating as Flight LYM308, crashed in Camilla, Georgia after both wings failed. The flight was en route to

Southwest Georgia Regional Airport Southwest Georgia Regional Airport is an airport four miles southwest of Albany, in Dougherty County, Georgia, in the United States. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''primary commercial servi ...

and there were heavy rains and storms in the area at the time. The sole aircraft occupant, the pilot, was killed. The accident was attributed to the pilot's decision to continue flight into an area of known severe weather, his loss of control due to spatial disorientation, and the aircraft's ensuing in-flight breakup. * May 12, 2021 – A

Cirrus SR22 The Cirrus SR22 is a single-engine four- or five-seat composite aircraft built from 2001 by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota. It is a development of the Cirrus SR20, with a larger wing, higher fuel capacity, and a more powerful, 310-horsepo ...

''N416DJ'' and

Key Lime Air Flight 970 The 2021 Colorado mid-air collision occurred on approach to Centennial Airport near Denver, Colorado, on 12 May 2021. Events At about 10:20 AM local time, Key Lime Air Flight 970, an air charter cargo flight from Salida, Colorado, operated by ...

, Swearingen SA-226-TC Metro ''N280KL'' operating a charter cargo flight, collided on approach to

in Colorado. The Cirrus made a safe off-airport parachute-assisted landing, while the Key Lime pilot landed safely at Centennial despite the loss of a section of the cabin roof, and damage to the

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third e ...

. There were no injuries.

References

External links

*
Charter Alliance Group LLC. dba Denver Air Connection (DCA)
{{Airlines of the United States, state=collapsed Regional airlines of the United States Airlines established in 1997 Cargo airlines of the United States 1997 establishments in Colorado Airlines based in Colorado Aviation in the United States