US: Seaplane crashed after its right wing fell off

The wing that fell off a seaplane before it crashed, killing all 20 people on board, had cracks in the main support beam that had probably gone unseen for a long time, US federal investigators said today.

Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, stopped short of saying the cracking was the only reason the right wing fell off the 58-year-old plane shortly after it took off from Miami on Monday for the Bahamas.

But Rosenker told a news conference that the cracking should have been found and repaired, although it would have taken “a very serious” inspection to find it. The plane plummeted into the water in front of horrified beachgoers.

Rosenker said that if Chalk’s Ocean Airways officials had known about the cracking “they would have repaired it and we wouldn’t be here today. I don’t think they knew it.”

He said the plane’s age could have been a factor in the cracking. He said the plane was retrofitted in the 1980s with more powerful engines, but it wasn’t clear what role if any that played in the cracking.

Investigators also hope to recover the cockpit voice recorder and plan to scour maintenance and flight records to see if they provide other clues.

Rosenker said the NTSB will meet with federal authorities and Chalk’s about whether to ground its four Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallards. He said the plane was still flown by other US and foreign operators, but wasn’t sure how many are still in operation.

The plane, headed to the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, crashed into the mouth of Government Cut channel off the southern tip of Miami Beach. Crews planned to raise the rest of the plane from 35 feet of water today and Rosenker said inspectors would closely examine the remaining part of the support beam.

Eighteen passengers – including three infants – and two crew members were on Monday’s flight. At least 11 of the victims were returning home to home to Bimini, many of them after Christmas shopping trips. Weeping islanders went house to house yesterday to grieve.

Older planes have been a concern for federal safety officials since 1988, when fatigue cracking caused the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 to peel off over Maui. A flight attendant was sucked out of the plane and lost at sea. The Aloha 737 was 19 years old when the accident occurred, but it had taken off and landed more than 80,000 times.

That accident, and a subsequent law passed by Congress in 1991, prompted the FAA to step up its requirements for inspections and maintenance of ageing aircraft.

“The island at this time is in an uproar,” said Walter Stuart of Miami, who lost 11 family members in the crash.