News from Avweb reporter.
December 22, 2005
Cracks Found In Crashed Mallard's Spar
By Russ Niles
Newswriter, Editor
Investigators have found a major fatigue crack in the spar of the wing that separated from a Chalk's Ocean Airways turboprop Mallard on takeoff from Miami on Monday. The wing was recovered Tuesday and fatigue was quickly apparent. "We've seen fatigue. We don't know why that fatigue appeared. That is what we're trying to determine," Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Wednesday morning. "This crack appears to extend through a majority of the spar at the location of the separation." A total of 19 passengers, most of them from the Bahamas, and the pilot died. Rosenker suggested the crack may have been hard to spot on a routine inspection. "Inspection maybe would have found that [metal fatigue], but there would have had to have been a very serious type of inspection to have understood it and found it," he said. The airline has suspended regular service but airline officials say there is still strong demand for flights and they hope to resume service by Friday. Chalk's has been in operation since 1919 and had three Mallards before Monday's crash.
This is going to take allot time to properly sort out. These guy's are my neighbours at FLL. These aircraft are very well maintained. The very fact that they have had such a safety record and their dependebility are testiments to the viability of the fleet. Many years ago I worked for Walker's Cay and I spent allot of time working on N2954 our Mallard. They are extremely well built and a sea kindly design. The next flying boat I worked on was the PBY. I licensed three of them and Imported two of them. I was luckey enough to amass about fifty hours in them. Just 'cause it's a highly experienced airplane does not make it trash. If it's properly maintained it can soldier on ad infinitum
My company ran twenty vintage airliners hauling the Wall Street Journal. Our mission completion rate was over 99.9% and we never hurt anyone. I only wish I still could operate them now.