I guess that is what can happens when 'amateur' Cocaine Magnates try "free

mid-flight. :- |

OK, even I will admit that that was a sick thought !!! (but it could be a

Either Way, Just A Thought.

:-(]

Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo ;-) ������Ƕ�( Xa Ta Zac Xa Ta Amac )� wrote:

MSNBC.com

Seaplane crashes off Miami, killing at least 19
Aircraft dives into water just offshore; authorities say no survivors
found

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 11:20 p.m. ET Dec. 19, 2005

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.

Amateur video obtained by CNN showed the main part of the aircraft
slamming into the water followed by a flaming object trailing thick
black smoke.

Scuba divers and rescuers in speedboats struggled to reach the victims,
but as evening fell, they found no sign that anyone survived.

The twin-engine Chalk's Ocean Airways plane went down about 2:30 p.m.
ET shortly after takeoff. Chalk's Ocean Airways operates regular
seaplane flights between Miami and the Bahamas.

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

Three Coast Guard vessels and a helicopter were involved in the rescue
operations. Bystanders joined in, using private boats, Jet Skis and
surfboards.

Twin-engine amphibious aircraft
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a Grumman G-73T
Turbine Mallard, a twin-engine amphibious aircraft powered by two Pratt
& Whitney-Canada PT-6 turbine engines. The aircraft is capable of
operating from water as well as land-based airports.

The aircraft that went down was built in 1947 and is registered to
Seaplane Adventures LLC in Greenwich, Conn., according to FAA records.

The plane had a clean safety record with no reported incidents for more
than 21 years. In February 1984, the elevator trim tab, which controls
pitch, failed and caused the steering column to shake. In April of that
year, the landing gear failed to retract, and investigators found the
nose gear assembly was overstressed.

No passengers or crew were injured in either incident, according to the
records.

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."

With many schools already closed in advance of the holidays and
Christmas week traditionally one of the biggest times of the year
tourism, the beach was relatively busy, and dozens of beachgoers saw
the plane go down. Dozens more gathered to watch the rescue.

As Coast Guard helicopers hovered over the crash site, some surfers
remained in the water, only a few hundred feet away. Some surfers used
their boards to rush toward the spot where the plane went down.

One witness, Frank Amadeo, told WSVN-TV that he saw a huge explosion in
the sky and the plane fall behind a condominium tower on Biscayne Bay
in Miami Beach.

Another witness, Peter Higney, who said he witnessed the crash from a
nearby office building, told MSNBC TV that fire erupted on the right
wing of the plane and that the wing came off moments before the crash.

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.

Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety
Board, said the initial investigation will focus on locating the
plane's cockpit voice recorder and examining aircraft records. He
said much of the wreckage, including the main fuselage, would likely be
raised Tuesday.

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.

Chalk's Ocean Airways was founded in 1919. Its floating planes take
off 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, the small airline thrived during
Prohibition, taking bootleggers, their customers and Customs agents to
Bimini.

Airline's plane hijacked to Cuba in 1974
One of its Grumman Gooses 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 Corp. of
Illinois/Atwood Enterprises. The airline flew Dash 7 40-seat turboprops
back then.

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

The only crash involving fatalities occurred March 18, 1994, when two
pilots died after their seaplane crashed near Key West, according to
the airline.

The airline had no comment after the crash.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

� 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10534159/

Well, the NTSB hauled the seperated wing out of the drink this afternoon on
live TV. One prop blade was bent back and the other two were bent in the
plane of rotation. I suspect a bird strike on the propellor that bent the
blade back and caused a severe imbalance which shook the engine off the
mount and broke the spar. Fuel is stored in the wing of course, so
catastrophic structural failure would send hundreds of gallons of Jet-A
into the exhaust stream.... FIRE. The two blades bent along the plane of
rotation indicate that the engine was most likely still running when it
impacted the water, which isn't all that unusual. The PT-6 is a free
turbine turboshaft engine, meaning that the turbine wheel that powers the
propellor is not physically connected to the turbine that drives the
compressor that feeds the fire. You can actually hold the prop and keep it
from rotating without damaging the rest of the engine. (I didn't bellieve
it at first too, but you can, if you prevent the prop from turning up at
engine start and developing momentum.) The Grumman is over-engineered in
the typical WW2 design mentality, so it would take some serious shaking to
rip a wing off in flight. An out-of balance prop would do it.

We'll all find out in a few days.

Charly