Warbird Information Exchange

Just heard a report on CNN that one of the Chalks amphibians has gone
down in the water at Miami Beach. Early witnesses report the aircraft
exploded in mid-air and fell to the water. 16-17 occupants are reported to
have been aboard. Edit: 6 bodies have been recovered, 7 survivors are on
the beach being treated for injuries. It is now, for what it's worth, reported
the aircraft was a pt-6 powered G-73 Mallard.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

All Said Dead
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago



MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - A propeller-driven seaplane carrying 20 people crashed off Miami Beach within sight of the city's high-rises Monday, killing at least 19 of those aboard, authorities said. Witnesses said the plane blew apart in the air, and the FBI joined in the investigation.

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Scuba divers and rescuers in speedboats struggled to reach the victims but found no sign of survivors as evening fell.

The Chalk's Ocean Airways plane — a twin-engine Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard — went down around 2:30 p.m. after taking off from Miami for the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, crashing in a narrow channel used by cruise ships, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The Coast Guard said 19 bodies were found. The plane was carrying two crew members and 18 passengers, including three infants, authorities said.

Because of witness reports of an explosion before the plane went down, the FBI sent agents to assist in the investigation, but there was no immediate indication of terrorism or sabotage, said Judy Orihuela, spokeswoman for the FBI's Miami field office.

"It's too soon to say whether we are going to get involved," Orihuela said. "We're just going to check it out."

Sandy Rodriguez, 14, said he saw the plane flying low with white smoke trailing from it and flames coming from the bottom. The right wing then fell off as the plane went down behind a condominium tower on Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, he said.

"It exploded in the air and one of the wings flew out of there. The other part of the plane was on fire and it just went straight down," said Maurice D'Giovianni, 42, a surfer who was in the water at the time.

Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr also saw the crash from the Coast Guard office on Government Cut. "Everything looked normal, I saw the aircraft take off like it does every other times. I didn't think anything of it when I saw the black smoke from the pier, until I then heard the Coast Guard alarms go off," he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate.

The plane went down in Government Cut, a channel that cruise ships and freighters take past South Beach into the Port of Miami. The channel is up to 30 feet deep near the crash site, but parts of the plane could be seen in shallower areas.

The skies were cloudy, but there was no rain or lightning in the area at the time of the crash.

Coast Guardsmen and emergency workers wearing protective suits hauled bodies up from rescue boats, rushing to find victims before darkness fell. Law enforcement speedboats, divers and helicopters took part in the search and were joined by others in private boats, on personal watercraft and on surfboards.

Chalk's Ocean Airways flies between Miami and the Bahamas, using planes that take off and land on the water. Chalk's aircraft have been featured in TV shows such as "Miami Vice." Its seaplanes take off in view of the port and the multimillion-dollar homes that dot islands in the bay.

Founded by Arthur "Pappy" Chalk in 1919, the airline thrived during Prohibition, taking bootleggers, their customers and customs agents to Bimini. According to the airline, its most famous regular passenger was Ernest Hemingway, who flew to Bimini to go big-game fishing.

One of its planes was hijacked to Cuba in 1974 and the company has since had a policy of not carrying enough fuel to get to Havana.

Two years later, the airline was sold to Resorts International, which owned properties on Paradise Island. Donald Trump bought it in 1988 and sold it a few months later to Merv Griffin. The owner as of 1995 was Seth Atwood of United Capital Corporation of Illinois/Atwood Enterprises.

According to its Web site, Chalk's operates 17-passenger Turbine Mallards.

According to FlightSafe Consultants' Airline Safety Web site, Chalk's has had no known fatal accidents. Similarly, the NTSB database shows no fatal accidents for Chalk's since 1982, when the database started.

The airline had no comment after the crash.

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Live to fly, Fly to live.....

saw the bad news on nbc nightly news. tragic!!! they made an issue on the flying boat's age on abc world news. no relevance to that theory. blatant media sensationalism at worst / best. i've seen the chalks operation base in nassau, very impressive, & unless i've been living a sheltered life...... i've never heard of a casualty / crash before today on that airline. god rest em all!! tough news any time of year, but especially worse at the holidays. god bless!! tom

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Structural Failure seems to be the cause! Pictures show the large chunk of aircraft coming off and a resultant fire and the A/C plunging into the sea! So much for Chalks! It's all over but the auction

Very sad...gut-wrenching video for me, just like that C-130 crash a couple years ago.

Thank you, that is very uplifting... First passenger fatality since 1919 from the news report I saw.

Ditto!....heard the same here! Didn't like the "talking heads" lack of
something to talk about, so they zeroed-in on the age of the Mallard. I get
all quesy inside when the press..politicians..or g'ubmunt folks start talkin'
like that... ....next thing ya know..

With their history in mind..I'm sure Chalks sails through this. They're too
unique and connected with Florida and the Islands to die from this
choppy water. Bless the souls of those lost and condolences to the their
loved ones.

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Someone captured the inflight seperation of the wing and the crash on a poor video clip. They are playing it on FOX this morning.

_________________
Live to fly, Fly to live.....

Sad but true. Structural failure is something people don't forget about especially when CNN is beating a drum and the plane does a swain dive off Miami Beach in front of a million plus people. I can't wait untill they examine the wing. It is going to be very interseting. I would be inclined to guess corosion was a major contributing factor. Someting like this spar failure, wing fuel tank ruptures and resultant fire, wing seperates. Yea, I'm bummed about this! my wife and I fly them regularly to Paradise Island and it would have been a option for Christmas but the wife is scared of them now.

I don't want to be a pessimist, but events like this do depress your business operation. Forget the courtroom stuff- that is what the insurance is for. But in this Steel-Clad economy we keep hearing about, can they handle a 10% decrease in passenger's? Hope they stay in business- I like the idea of 86 year old aviation corporations!

One accident in 80 years...terrible track record.

Saw the movie of this...you can see the wing falling seperate and fully ablaze as the aircraft goes almost straight down into the water. Almost looked like the old footage from WW2.
PJ

I'm usually not one for speculation on these matters but from what I've seen it looks like it may have been an in-flight fire that caused the structural failure rather than just a case of airframe fatigue. Fire does not discriminate between old airplanes or new.

Without wishing to prejudge it . I would be thinking in terms of structural failure rather than an inflight fire causing wing failure. The aircraft wasn't airborn for long and I don't think a fire could have caused enough damage to the spar area that quickly. The U.K media have reported it as an engine failure causing it which is equally unlikely.
Very sad for the families lost and for the guys of Chalks who I am sure did everything they could .

Just to throw my 2 cents into the ring. I tend to agree with Chad with regards to the inflight fire leading to the wing separation. If you look closely to the video you'll notice the long trail of smoke that seems to begin well before the wings departure from the airframe. In fact the trail starts somewhere off screen. Not to mention eye witnesses describe this very scene of a engine fire prior to the wing separtion. My prayers go out to those 20 people and their families

Shay
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Semper Fortis