Paging the Dupe Police...Where is the thread?
It sounds like ROP handiwork to me. On the other hand, they are pretty old aircraft.
That airline <had> one of the best safety records in history.
Does anybody know if they have the standard security proceedures?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seaplane Crashes Off Miami Beach, Killing 19
* Sign In to E-Mail This
* Printer-Friendly
* Reprints
* Save Article
By MARIA NEWMAN and SHADI RAHIMI
Published: December 19, 2005
A seaplane heading for the Bahamas from Florida crashed off Miami Beach this afternoon, killing all 19 people aboard, Coast Guard officials said, adding that 3 were infants.
Skip to next paragraph Multimedia
Video Report
All of the bodies have been recovered, a police official told reporters at a televised news conference.
The airplane crashed shortly after takeoff, and dozens of rescue workers from various agencies, joined by volunteers aboard private boats, small powered craft and even surfboards, quickly began combing the waters off Miami Beach.
The propeller-driven plane, operated by Chalk's Ocean Airways, was headed to Watson Island in the Bahamas when it went down around 2:30 p.m., officials said.
Lifeguards and beachgoers reported seeing fire and smoke spewing from the plane's engines, followed by what they took to be an explosion, before the plane "went straight down into the water," Chief Floyd Jordan of the Miami Beach Fire Department said at the news briefing.
A witness, Frank Amadeo, told WSVN-TV that he saw a huge explosion in the sky and the plane disappear behind a condominium tower on Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, The A.P. said.
The Coast Guard said the cause of the crash was not immediately known, and it could not confirm that there had been an explosion. The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate. Witnesses to plane crashes sometimes recall seeing or hearing explosions before impact that are later found to have occurred later.
Mr. Otero said the plane was one that regularly flew to and from the Bahamas.
Roger Nair, a spokesman for the airways, said it was Chalk's first crash in the 86 years that the company has been flying. The Web site of the Miami Herald, however, lists a crash in 1994 that killed two pilots.
"We are a close-knit family airline and most of our customers have been our passengers for many years," Mr. Nair said, reading from a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all our customers and their families."
Television pictures taken from helicopters showed debris in Government Cut, the channel that ships take past South Beach into the Port of Miami.
Chalk's Ocean Airways, founded in 1919, is one of the oldest operating airlines in the world. Its amphibious planes became something of a South Florida icon when they were featured in the 1980's television show "Miami Vice."
Chalk's Ocean Airways is based in Fort Lauderdale and is now owned by a Florida businessman, Jim Confalone, who bought it out of bankruptcy in 1999 from a group of investors who were operating the airline under the name PanAm Air Bridge.