Owen Roberts (aviator)

Owen "Bobby" Roberts (aka "The Commander") (Circa 1912 - April 10, 1953) was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) Wing Commander and noted 20th-century aviator and founder of Caribbean International Airways. Owen Roberts International Airport in George Town on Grand Cayman is named after him.

Aviator and pioneer

Roberts flew with the RAF and was a Wing Commander during World War II. Following the war, Roberts founded Caribbean International Airways (CIA). By 1950, Roberts had established regular service between Cayman and Tampa, Florida; Kingston, Jamaica; and Belize. He worked to lobby Cayman Islands Commissioners Ivor Smith and Andrew Gerrard to build airfields on all three of the Cayman Islands. In 1952, construction started on an official airstrip at an estimated cost of £93,000. On November 28, 1952 with a crowd of several hundred onlookers, Roberts piloted a PBY Catalina to a perfect landing on the partially completed airport runway. Within six months after that landing, Roberts had acquired two used Lockheed Lodestar airliners purchased to keep up with the competition whose interest was now piqued by the soon-to-be completed airfield at George Town.

The inaugural flight of CIA, Ltd. from Kingston, Jamaica to Grand Cayman was set for April 10, 1953. Tragically, however, the Lodestar piloted by Roberts crashed on takeoff from Palisadoes Airport. 13 people, including the 40 year-old Roberts, were killed. The only survivor of the crash was Roberts' brother-in-law, Lt. Col. Edward Remington-Hobbs. Roberts was survived by a wife, Patricia, and their two daughters, in London.