James O. Plinton Jr.

James O. Plinton Jr. (July 22, 1914 – July 4, 1996) was a U.S. commercial airline executive, commercial airline entrepreneur, and former U.S. Army Air Corps flight officer, pilot and flight instructor with the 332nd Fighter Group's 99th Fighter Squadron (best known as the Tuskegee Airmen). Plinton Jr. was one of the first African Americans to serve as an executive for a major U.S. commercial airline.

Early life Plinton Jr. was born on July 22, 1914, in Westfield, New Jersey. He was the son of Mary Williams Plinton, a Virginia native, and James O Plinton Sr. (1881–1967), a Jamaican immigrant from Savanna-la-Mar, Jamaica who migrated to New York in 1904. Plinton Sr. was one of a handful of individuals who survived the June 15, 1904 PS General Slocum passenger steamboat fire at Hell Gate in New York's East River that killed over 1,000 people. After graduation, Plinton Jr. worked for the U.S. Postal Service and the Merchant Marine.

Plinton Jr. received a citation from the Governor of the Grand Turk Island for landing the first aircraft there. He became the first African American to serve as an executive with a major U.S. commercial airline.

In 1971 he became a vice president at Eastern Airlines, making him the highest ranking African American for a U.S. commercial airline at the time. Though he retired from Eastern Airlines in 1980, Eastern Airlines's chairman and former astronaut Frank Borman, asked him to remain as a special assistant for additional year.

A civic leader, he served as the executive director of the Metropolitan Fellowship of Churches in Florida. He also served as chairman of the Tacolcy Economic Development Corporation.

Death On July 4, 1996, aged 81, he died of cancer at the Lake Wales Medical Center Extended Care Facility in Lake Wales, Florida. He was interred at Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey.

Legacy In 2006, the New Jersey Aviation Hall Of Fame posthumously inducted Plinton Jr. into its Hall of Fame.