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At least 19 killed in South Beach plane crash

 

By MATTHEW I. PINZUR

Posted on Tue, Dec. 20, 2005

 

A small seaplane burst into flames Monday in the hazy skies above South Beach, plummeting into the ocean before horrified onlookers and killing at least 19 of the 20 people aboard, including three infants.

 

The cause of the fiery crash remained unknown, but witnesses said the plane's rear half exploded loudly, shearing off the left wing and sending the flight tumbling to the sea shortly after its 2:30 p.m. takeoff from Watson Island.

 

''All of a sudden it just burst into a big ball of fire and it went right down,'' said Larry Little, 59, who was working construction on the Apogee building in South Pointe and watched the plane somersault into the water.

 

There were 20 people aboard the Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101: two pilots, 15 ticketed passengers and three infants. Many were believed to be from Bimini, the Bahamian island cluster where the flight was heading.

By 5:30 p.m., at least 19 bodies had been recovered, and Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil said there were no reports of survivors.

 

The majority of the passengers were found inside the largely intact fuselage, which came to rest at the mouth of Government Cut, said Miami Beach City Manager George Gonzalez.

 

''I ran there and when I got there there were four or five boats looking in the water,'' said Jeff Anderson, 34, who was surfing nearby. ``I didn't see anybody that looked like survivors. I didn't see anybody at all.''

 

Chalk's, which owns the Grumman G73-T Mallard airplane, is based in Fort Lauderdale and flies to Bimini and Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

''We can't make any comments because we don't have enough information at this time to even comment on,'' said airline owner Jim Confalone, who was out of town but has spoken repeatedly with the Coast Guard. ``They are recovering people out of the water right now as we speak.''

 

The plane normally holds 17 passengers plus two pilots, but infants are allowed unticketed, he said.

 

Unlike commercial flights, Chalk's passengers and luggage do not go through security checks by the Transportation Security Administration, Confalone said.

 

''It's too early to speculate as to why it would happen,'' Confalone said. `We've never heard of it happening before.''

 

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive in Miami late Monday. Their inquiry into the crash's cause is expected to take at least a year.

 

An Army medic, who was also surfing near the crash site, said the accident did not sound like an explosion.

 

''It sounded like the whir of engine,'' said Guy Clark, a National Guard reservist. ``I looked up -- it popped, then rocked. It wasn't like an explosion, a poof.

 

The plane that crashed Monday -- which can take off and land from the water or a runway -- was built in 1947 and has a history of mishaps, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

 

It suffered minor damage to the float under its left wing after the landing gear failed just before touchdown at the Fort Lauderdale airport in 2004. No passengers or crew were hurt during that accident, FAA records show. Another landing gear failure in 2002, also at Fort Lauderdale airport, sent the plane skidding down the runway. Again, nobody on board was injured.

 

In 1987, the plane had to make an emergency landing at sea after its pilots mismanaged the fuel supply. In 1984, the planes' control column suffered ''extreme shaking'' while descending into West Palm Beach, records show.

 

According to the airline's website, its fleet is ``undergoing an extensive refurbishment program which includes complete mechanical overhaul and cosmetic renovation, in addition to all new interior appointments.''

The last crash of a Chalk's plane came in 2000, when 15 passengers were virtually unscathed after an accident off Watson Island. Six years earlier, two crew members were killed when an otherwise-empty plane crashed off Key West. Those 1994 deaths were the only fatalities in Chalk's 85-year history.

 

Monday afternoon's search-and-rescue effort began with on-duty lifeguards and people on surfboards and jet skis, who pulled at least a few bodies to land.

 

''Unfortunately we were unable to find any one who had survived,'' said Miami Beach Fire Chief Floyd Jordan.

 

Within 30 minutes, the landscape near Government Cut was dotted with flashing red and blue lights -- from the Coast Guard cutters floating above the wreckage, to the fire-rescue trucks clustered near the South Pointe sand.

 

Body bags sat at the end of South Pointe Park, and hazardous-materials teams prepared to deal with diesel fuel in the water. The FBI was also on the scene, but spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said there was ''no intelligence'' linking the crash to terrorism.

 

The mishap also forced the closure of Government Cut, the area's main shipping channel. Three cruise ships scheduled to depart Monday evening were stuck in port, along with one cargo vessel. Three more cargo ships were waiting offshore to unload their containers, said port spokeswoman Andria Muniz.

 

On Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas, a crew member using a loudspeaker told passengers at about 5 p.m. that the crash-induced delay in departure could last 30 minutes to six hours.

 

''There is a big debris field,'' said Petty Officer Dana Warr, a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami. ``Right now you don't need a 1,000-foot or 1,200 foot cruise ship going through crash scene.''

 

Obie Wilchcombe, the member of parliament for Bimini and Bahamian Minister of Tourism, said that Chalk's informed him that least 11 of the individuals on board are from Bimini.

 

''That is what I was told. I spoke to them earlier, and they confirmed that,'' said Wilchcombe, on his way to Bimini.

 

Bimini is a small community of around 1,600 people who live on the tiny islands, 50 miles east of Miami. Many fly to Miami for day trips, especially for holiday shopping.

 

''The entire island is upset right now,'' said Bimini resident LLoyd Edgecombe. ``We are a small community. This thing has crushed the entire community.''

 

Copyright © 2005-2009 by Rev. Dr. Ricardo E. Nuñez.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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