By: Candia Dames

22 December 2005



Chalk’s Ocean Airways voluntarily grounded its four remaining aircraft for inspection two days after an horrific plane crash off Miami Beach killed 20 people, including 11 Biminites, an official at the airline’s Paradise Island office told The Bahama Journal on Wednesday.

This revelation came after Mark Rosenker, acing chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, said there were cracks in the main support beam of the wing that fell off the doomed Chalk’s aircraft.

Mr. Rosenker strongly intimated that the cracks may have been the reason for the deadly accident, which left residents on the tiny Bahamian island devastated.

The wing fell off the aircraft – which had been headed to Bimini – before it plunged into the water, according to officials.

"The examination of the wing root has found indications of a fatigue crack in the wing spar," Mr. Rosenker said at a news conference in Miami Beach

"This crack appears to extend through the majority of the spar at the location of the separation. I suspect had they known that there was a deep or a serious fatigue crack, and they would have learned that through a series of inspections, they would have repaired it and we wouldn’t be here today. I don’t think they knew it."

He added, "We don't know why that fatigue appeared. That is what we are trying to determine."

Mr. Rosenker also indicated that the plane’s age could have been a factor in the cracking. The seaplane that crashed was 58 years old.

Chalk’s has operated between Miami and the Bahamas since 1919.

Monday’s crash was the first Chalk’s accident involving passengers, according to the airline. In 1994, one of its aircraft crashed after taking off from Key West, killing two pilots.

On Wednesday, investigators pulled the mangled aircraft involved in the latest crash out the water as they continued their probe into the deadly crash, which Prime Minister Perry Christie described a day earlier as the greatest tragedy in Bimini’s history in living memory.

They used a crane aboard a barge to get the wreck out the water. The propeller and engine were still attached to the plane, which plummeted in 35 feet of water in Government Cut, just off the southern tip of Miami Beach.

Mr. Rosenker told reporters that inspectors will closely examine the wreck, particularly the cracking. They have reportedly already started interviewing Chalk’s employees.

He said in the 1980s the aircraft was retrofitted with more powerful engines, but it remained unclear whether this had a role in the cracking.

Mr. Rosenker said the NTSB will carefully examine Chalk’s maintenance and flight records to determine whether there had been any repairs made to the cracked wing.

The NTSB plans to transport the wing to its Washington lab for close examination.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the airline, which flies between Florida and The Bahamas, has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.

Data from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics show that in 2002, Chalk's Ocean Airways had net losses of $244,000 on operating revenues of over $5 million, AP reported.