Correct maintenance procedures were not always followed on the vintage Chalk’s seaplane that crashed last December, killing 11 Biminites on board, US federal investigators said yesterday in reports that could raise serious questions about the airline’s overall maintenance programme.
Investigators also noted that the Chalk’s Ocean Airways aircraft had several major repairs to the wing that separated just after takeoff on the fatal flight.
Some Chalk’s pilots became so worried about overall maintenance problems in 2004 that three captains quit, according to documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board about the December 19 crash off Miami Beach that killed all 20 people on board.
“There was a widespread perception that pilot complaints were not properly addressed by maintenance and that it was often necessary to write up the same problem repeatedly until it was fixed,” investigators quoted a Chalk’s pilot, Robert Lutz, as saying.
“The pilots wanted the airplanes fixed and were willing to see the company close if the issues were not addressed,” Mr Lutz told NTSB officials.
The NTSB reports, part of the Board’s continuing investigation into the “in-flight breakup,” come days after the six-month anniversary of the tragic crash that changed the quaint island of Bimini forever.
Killed in the crash were sisters Salome Rolle and Genevieve Ellis, Sophia and Bethany Sherman, Sabrina, Barto and Sabre’a Dean and Donald Smith and his grandchild Jervis Stuart, Jacqueline Stuart-Levarity and her daughter Niesha Fox.
The documents do not say what caused the 58-year-old Grumman G-73T Turbo Mallard to crash en route to Bimini. Investigators at the scene in December quickly found fatigue cracks in supports of the right wing that came off just after the seaplane took off and similar cracks in left wing structures. But much of the reports released Thursday focus on maintenance and repair work done to the right wing, the Associated Press reported.
The NTSB was careful to point out that the information released on Thursday was factual in nature and does not provide analysis.
The reports included interview summaries, a cockpit voice recorder report and other documents from the investigation, according to a notice posted on the NTSB’s web site.
The roots of both wings on the airplane suffered several fuel leaks in 2005 and pilots frequently described an “elevator flutter” or vibration in the months before the crash. In November – only a few weeks before it went down – these vibrations were noted in writing nine times, the NTSB found.
There were major repairs to the right wing in July 2000 and in December 1991, when inspectors found corrosion and popped rivets under the skin. There was also major work done on the left wing in May 1992, again because of damage from corrosion.
But NTSB officials were unable to locate records for some of these repairs. And in some cases, maintenance procedures were not followed.
For instance, an inspection of the July 2000 wing repair was not performed; there were no maintenance records available from Chalk’s for a major repair to a skin crack just outside the lower right wing; and the seaplane had flown a total of 31,011 hours before it crashed, with its last major structural overhaul coming on October 7, 2005.
The Nassau Guardian was unable to reach officials at Chalk’s headquarters in Fort Lauderdale for comment.
The NTSB said yesterday that an analysis of the accident, along with conclusions and a determination of probable cause, would come at a later date when the final report on the investigation is completed.
