Chalk Airlines Fatal Crash

[mike_s]

I heard Chalks was being sold. Anyway....

If so... I bet the price just went down...

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families as well

Yes... exactly. terrible for something to happen like this, especially right
before Christmas.

 

[Tienuts]

So if you wear pink and green fins you can't be a good diver?

It's the diving equivalent of having a mullet haircut.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Wait... Dude... What's wrong with mullets? Business in the front, party in the back!

 

[DiverBuoy]

Our main transportation to Catalina when I moved here decades ago was on Grumman Goose and later Mallard seaplanes. We had our share of crashes back then. I almost ended up in one myself. I hear the this is Chalk's first crash involving passengers. Condolences to the family and friends.

According to the news reports there was another crash involving only employees Pilot and Copilot some years back? I couldn't find confirmation of this verbal news report online however.

 

[SueMermaid]

I took a ride on one of those Mallards after I did my week with Blackbeard's. I will look forward to reading about the report when the TSB is done with the investigation. It makes me very sad to think about the 20 people on that plane.

 

[Dion]

I took a flight to Bimini on a seaplane in about 1998. I remember that it leaked when we took off and I thought that was kind of strange but the flight was otherwise uneventful, but the view was really beautiful, you could see the reef so clearly. We dove with Bimini Undersea, I sincerely hope that nobody from there was on it. (There isn't anything on their site about it yet.) My condolences go out to all the family of those who were killed.

 

[joystershell]

According to the news reports there was another crash involving only employees Pilot and Copilot some years back? I couldn't find confirmation of this verbal news report online however.

Today's (12/20/05) Sun Sentinel Newspaper (Ft Lauderdale, FL) does discuss the 1994 fatal crash in Key West Harbor, as well as give a lot of background on the history and evolution of Chalks.

 

[DanBMW]

We used to take a similar flight from Ft. Lauderdale the Bahamas on a sea plane painted to look like a Coors bottle. Fun to take off and land in the water, but a little scary to see water fly by your window.

 

[DandyDon]

According to the news reports there was another crash involving only employees Pilot and Copilot some years back? I couldn't find confirmation of this verbal news report online however.

I could not find the year, but it was a pilot and co-pilot lost off of Key West.

This came out this morning...

Updated: 11:32 AM EST
Plane's Wing Had Cracks in Beam, NTSB Says
Crash Off Miami Beach Kills All 20 on Board
By CURT ANDERSON, AP

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 21) - The wing that fell off a seaplane before it crashed, killing all 20 people on board, had cracks in the main support beam that had probably gone unseen for a long time, federal investigators said Wednesday.

Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, stopped short of saying the cracking was the sole reason the right wing fell off the 58-year-old plane Monday shortly after it took for the Bahamas.

But Rosenker told a news conference that the cracking should have been found and repaired, although it would have taken "a very serious" inspection to find it.

The Chalk's Ocean Airways plane plummeted into the Government Cut channel off the southern tip of Miami Beach in front of horrified beachgoers.

The cracks were in the main support beam that connected the wing to the fuselage. Rosenker said that if Chalk's officials had known about the cracking "they would have repaired it and we wouldn't be here today. I don't think they knew it."

The propeller and engine were still attached when salvage crews raised the right wing from the channel Tuesday. Crews began raising the rest of the plane from 35 feet of water Wednesday and Rosenker said inspectors will closely examine the remaining part of the support beam.

The salvagers will use balloons to float the plane's fuselage to the surface slowly to avoid damaging it any further, Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr said.

Investigators also planned to scour maintenance and flight records for evidence of work done on the plane.

Rosenker said the plane's age could have been a factor in the cracking. The plane was retrofitted in the 1980s with more powerful engines, but it wasn't clear what role if any that played in the cracking, Rosenker said.

Chalk's officials had no immediate comment Wednesday.

Rosenker said the NTSB will have discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration and Chalk's about whether to ground its remaining four Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallards. He said other U.S. and foreign operators also fly the plane, but he wasn't sure how many are still in operation.

Warr said the Coast Guard is hoping to get the Port of Miami fully operational soon after the salvage operation is complete. Access to the port was closed again Wednesday so that the salvage operation can continue. The port is one of the largest cruise and cargo terminals in the country.

"We know the impact this is having on the ports and the economy," Warr said.

Older airplanes have been a concern for federal safety officials since 1988, when fatigue cracking caused the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel off over Maui. A flight attendant was sucked out of the airplane and lost at sea. The Aloha 737 was 19 years old when the accident occurred, but it had taken off and landed more than 80,000 times.

That accident, and a subsequent law passed by Congress in 1991, prompted the FAA to step up its requirements for inspections and maintenance of aging aircraft.

Eighteen passengers -- including three infants -- and two crew members were on Monday's flight. At least 11 of the victims were returning home to the Bahamian island of Bimini, many of them after Christmas shopping jaunts. Weeping islanders went house to house Tuesday to grieve.

"The island at this time is in an uproar," said Walter Stuart of Miami, who lost 11 family members in the crash.

The plane that crashed Monday previously had few major reported incidents, and no passengers or crew were injured in any of them, according to the FAA.

Chalk's Ocean Airways was founded in 1919, and its aircraft have been featured in TV shows like "Miami Vice." Its floating planes take off in view of the port and waterfront multimillion-dollar homes.

 

[DennisW]

This is an issue with older aircraft. It takes an extreme inspection to find something like this and it is not a FAA requirement. The FAA may change the requirements for older aircraft used in passenger service to require this kind of inspection. If they do, the tickets will be more expensive, but I think worth the price. No sane airline or individual would operate an aircraft knowingly with cracks in the wing spar.