Tepper Aviation, Inc. (founded 1987, later known as Gulf Air Group and Pallas Aviation) was a Central Intelligence Agency front airline company known for a deadly plane crash in Angola in 1989, secretly carrying arms to UNITA insurgents, and involvement in extraordinary rendition in the 2000's.

Tepper was based at the Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview, Florida.

History The company was created after the exposure and dissolution of the CIA's previous and related front airline St. Lucia Airways after it was revealed to be involved in the Iran Contra Affair.Grey, Stephen, "Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program", St. Martin's Press, New York, 1st ed., October 2006, Library of Congress card number 2006048347, , page 108. In 1988, Tepper had taken all of the assets of St. Lucia Airways.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tepper transported weapons and guerrillas to the UNITA insurgency in Angola. In the 2000's, the company was involved in and investigated for the CIA's extraordinary rendition and torture operations.

Angolan Civil War

Tepper Aviation's existence as a CIA front company carrying weapons and guerrillas in the Angolan Civil War was widely reported in the national and international reporting of a deadly CIA plane crash in Angola in 1989.

In early 1989, the UK Independent reported Tepper's involvement in Angola:

Petty died months later in the crash of Hercules aircraft N9205TAccident description for N9205T, Aviation Safety Network. Undated, accessed May 18, 2006. in Angola, as reported by Flight International:

According to The Book of Honor by Ted Gup, Petty was the head of Tepper at the time:

Gup's book identifies Gracie T. Petty as Petty's widow.

Extraordinary Rendition

In the 2000's, Tepper was involved in multiple different European investigations into US abductions and transport of prisoners subjected to torture and torture-like interrogations that experts believed violated international law. The larger situation at the time was referred to as "[possible] flying torture chambers circling over Europe," by Martin Schulz, a Social Democratic leader in the European Parliament.

Italian Prosecutor Armando Spataro said that in February 2003 US agents kidnapped Imam Abu Omar in Milan, placed him on a jet operated by CIA airline Tepper Aviation, and sent him to Egypt via the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany. In 2005, the Council of Europe said it was investigating allegations that the CIA was using the company's aircraft for extraordinary rendition of suspected terrorists through Europe. In January 2003, the Austrian air force sent fighter jets to check on a suspicious plane flight (registration number N8183J) which was later revealed to be operated by Tepper Aviation and had taken off from the Rhine-Main Airbase in Frankfurt. In January 2006, a European Parliament investigation named Tepper among others as part of a network of planes and CIA airlines that transported prisoners repeatedly to countries known for torture and imprisonment without trial. The report led to a resolution that condemned extraordinary rendition and stated the CIA was responsible for "illegal seizure, removal, abduction, and detention of terrorist suspects" in Europe specifically and in violation of international law and fundamental human rights. In May 2006, the Irish Human Rights Commission named Tepper Aviation as one of several operators of airplanes suspected in human rights violations, and repeatedly invoked multiple overlapping laws against torture.

Tepper was part of a network of six US companies, including also Aero Contractors Limited, Pegasus Technologies, posing as general charter flight companies but operating airplanes that belonged to the CIA. The agency used the airplanes for the global war on terror, for example to move suspected Al-Qaida terrorists between secret prisons and other torture facilities.

Name Changes On October 11, 2016, Tepper filed papers changing its name to Gulf Air Group, effective in 2017. In 2019, Gulf Air Group opened the Covington Maintenance Center at Southern Alabama Regional Airport in Andalusia, Alabama. In September 2024, Pallas Aviation, previously incorporated in Texas, filed for incorporation in Florida. The principal address was given as 5486 Fairchild Road, Hangar #7, Crestview FL, which is also the address of Gulf Air Group. In addition, the person authorized to manage and control Pallas was the president and CEO of Gulf Air Group.

See also Aero Contractors (US) Air America List of defunct airlines of the United States Rendition aircraft

References

Further reading "CIA resumes Angola covert flights", Flight International, March 21, 1990. Alan George, "US weapons boost Angolan rebels", The Guardian (UK), June 25, 1990. "USA step up Unita supply", Flight International, June 27, 1990. "Tepper Aviation plans US internal cargo services", Flight International, March 4, 1992. Richard K. Kolb, "Into the Heart of Darkness. Cold War Africa: Part 2, Angola", VFW Magazine (Veterans of Foreign Wars of United States), May 1999. Via archive.org. Mentions Tepper's role in Angola. George Wright, " The Destruction of a Nation: United States Policy Toward Angola Since 1945", page 151. . Mentions Tepper's activities in Angola. Lars Olausson, "Lockheed Hercules Production List 1954-2009", Volume 26, self-published, Såtenäs, Sweden, April 2008, no ISBN, lists Tepper L-100 operations. Peter C. Smith, "Lockheed C-130 Hercules: The World's Favourite Military Transport". . Publisher: Airlife Pub Ltd, November 2001. Mentions Tepper.