Accident Details
On December 19, 2005, Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States to Bimini, Bahamas, with an unscheduled stop at Watson Island, Miami, Florida, crashed off Miami Beach, Florida. Witnesses saw white smoke billowing from the plane, before the right wing ripped off and the plane plunged into the ocean. Twenty people — 18 passengers and two crew members — were on board. There were no survivors. Three of the passengers were lap-held infants under the age of two. Just over half of the passengers were from Bimini and returning from Christmas shopping in Florida.
The plane crashed and sank in Government Cut channel, a waterway which connects the Port of Miami with the Atlantic Ocean. Government Cut was closed to shipping until 6:30 p.m. on December 20, stranding at least three cruise ships.
The plane was a Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard manufactured in 1947. It was the first fatal passenger incident for Chalk's Ocean Airways. The pilot and copilot were, respectively, Michele Marks, 37, of Boynton Beach, Florida promoted to captain a year prior to the accident, and Paul DeSanctis, 34, of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, who joined the airline 8 months before. They both died in the crash.
Sergio Danguillecourt, a member of the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd. (and a great-great-grandson of the rum company's founder Facundo Bacardi), and wife, Jacqueline Kriz Danguillecourt, were on board. Sergio Danguillecourt undid his seatbelt likely as an effort to escape the aircraft; he either jumped or fell out of the aircraft; his body, the last one found, was recovered by a fisherman near Key Biscayne, four miles from the crash site. The bodies of all the other passengers were found still strapped in their seats.
On December 22, 2005 the NTSB issued a press release which included pictures showing metal fatigue on the wing that broke off. On May 30, 2007, Reuters reported that "The National Transportation Safety Board asserted Chalk Ocean Airways failed to identify and properly repair fatigue cracks on the 1947 Grumman Turbo Mallard. The plane lost its right wing a few minutes after take-off for the Bahamas at 500 ft (152 m) and plunged into the shipping channel adjacent to the Port of Miami on December 19, 2005." The safety board, in its final report on the probable cause of the crash, noted numerous maintenance-related problems on the plane and another company aircraft, raising questions about Chalk Ocean's aircraft maintenance practices. "The signs of structural problems were there but not addressed," safety board chairman Mark Rosenker said. The safety board also said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) failed to detect and correct the airline's maintenance shortfalls. Regulations exempt older seaplanes from rigorous structural oversight. Chalk Ocean had no comment on the safety board's findings. The FAA said it had no indication Chalk Ocean's maintenance program was in question. "The regulations are crystal clear that the carrier has primary responsibility for the airworthiness of (its) fleet and that includes making appropriate structural repairs," the agency said in a statement.
Read more about this topic: Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101
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