Alaska Southern
Airways Keystone-Loening K-84 Commuter
NC63K (c/n 305)
Alaska Southern Airways was founded in 1933
by Nick Bez, a Yugoslavian immigrant who had
made his
money from his fish canning business. Its first aircraft was
this Loening Commuter, manu-
factured in 1929 by the Loening Aeronautical Engineering Co of New York
City, a Division of the
Keystone
Aircraft Corp. It had a 300 h.p. Wright J-6 engine.
Originally a fixed-based operator,
Bez
eventually started a regular service between Juneau and Seattle, via
Ketchikan. The above
shot is
a Lloyd Jarman photograph and depicts the blue and yellow Commuter,
named "Kruzof"
at
Katalla in Prince William Sound.