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Author Topic: Chalks Flying Service...CRASH  (Read 478 times)

Offline JSparrow

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Chalks Flying Service...CRASH
« on: December 19, 2005, 05:00:18 PM »
One of thier Mallards went down today.  I have no other info cept my dad said it looked like it went in after take-off. Some 20 presumed dead.  Miami?

MIAMI - 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.

I'll keep searching for more info.

Here it is.
CRASH
« Last Edit: December 19, 2005, 05:16:34 PM by JSparrow »
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storch

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« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2005, 09:30:50 PM »
a friend of mine is an A&P employed by Chalk's I've tried to reach him but he hasn't responded.  They normally take off from the south side of watson island and into the predominantly easterly winds in government cut.  this is the first time in 45 years that one of their planes has gone down as far as i know.  they have a very good safety and maintenance program.  I'm shocked by the event and apparently all aboard died in the accident.
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Offline Captain Virgil Hilts

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« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2005, 09:52:36 PM »
One of their planes supposedly crashed a few years back, killing the crew.
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Offline Mickey1992

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« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2005, 07:29:06 AM »
Video of the plane hitting the water.  Beware that Ogrish.com is not work safe.

http://www.ogrish.com/archives/2005/december/ogrish-dot-com-miami_plane_crash.wmv

Reports are that there was an explosion and one of the wings separated.  The video seems to back that up.  :(
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Offline nuchpatrick

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« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2005, 08:46:05 AM »
What a shame for the holidays....  It was freaky to see the plane go into the drink and the right wing go sailing into the water after it..

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Offline Seagoon

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« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2005, 04:14:09 PM »
The plane was one of the Grumman G73Ts - basically the old Grumman Mallard with new Turboprop engines in place of the old radials.

It does look like the entire right wing exploded and separated. What kind of mechanical failure could do that?
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Offline BigGun

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« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2005, 04:48:15 PM »
Could be stress fracture in wing of an old old plane that has flown for years in corrosive environment. My guess within a year they will give us an educated guess.
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Offline Wolfala

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« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2005, 04:58:06 PM »
New PT6's so it probally isnt anything like a catastrophic turbine failure. I'd go with corrosion in the salty enviroment.
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storch

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Chalks Flying Service
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2005, 05:18:09 PM »
the plane had just been (the day before) annualled and was thoroughly inspected.
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Offline Wolfala

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« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2005, 06:19:00 PM »
The day before. Was this the first flight of the day?
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the best cure for "wife ack" is to deploy chaff:    $...$$....$....$$$.....$ .....$$$.....$ ....$$

storch

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Chalks Flying Service
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2005, 06:54:46 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Wolfala
The day before. Was this the first flight of the day?
they took off from FTL and water landed at watson island 1400+- picked up some passangers then took off for bimini.  on takeoff the aircraft suffered the accident.
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Offline JSparrow

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« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2005, 07:07:57 PM »
Storch,

I got out the ol photo box and was looking at a few pics my dad took back in 74" and 77".  Looks like Mallards and Albatross.  He use to take me there to watch the Good Year Blimp, Helicopters and the Chalks Anphibs.  If I recal correctly, they were all located on the same island???
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storch

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Chalks Flying Service
« Reply #12 on: December 20, 2005, 10:53:40 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by JSparrow
Storch,

I got out the ol photo box and was looking at a few pics my dad took back in 74" and 77".  Looks like Mallards and Albatross.  He use to take me there to watch the Good Year Blimp, Helicopters and the Chalks Anphibs.  If I recal correctly, they were all located on the same island???
 Ha!! Pappy Chaulk was still alive and hanging out at the dispatch hut back then but he was moving kinda slow, he died in '77 IIRC. yup and they still are and the beauty of it is it's rent free because they adversely possessed the land by virtue of 80 years of continously using it.  they won a major lawsuit against the county when the county tried to shut them down by eviction.  it was merv griffin's resorts international's (the people who bought the airline from Pappy Chaulk's estate) gift to us amphib afficionados.  their operations were moved to FTL after 9/11 because of "security concerns" at the port but were just recently operating from watson island again.  damn shame, compounded by the loss of life.
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Offline Seagoon

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« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2005, 11:32:10 AM »
One of the eyewitnesses reported he heard a "boom" before the wing fell off, and clearly the right wing and engine are burning furiously as they fall into the sea.

Wouldn't this tend to support the "catastrophic engine failure" scenario rather than a stress fracture causing the wing to fail?

- SEAGOON
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Offline StarOfAfrica2

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« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2005, 12:37:37 PM »
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/21/miami.crash/index.html

Quote
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The right wing that broke off a seaplane before it plunged off Miami's South Beach, killing 20 people, showed signs of a metal fatigue crack when examined, a top federal official said Wednesday morning.


As for the fire and explosion, they are saying the heat and sparks when the wing separated caused the fuel inside the wing to catch fire.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2005, 12:40:24 PM by StarOfAfrica2 »
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