BuffettNews.com

All 19 bodies have been recovered. So sad.

conched wrote:CNN breaking news just reported no survivors. 17 passengers and 2 crew members.

WOW...... how horrible.... I have been buried in my work today and just now saw this....

Phin powers for our very own chalkoperations

And yes... Jimmy's plane is in Aspen

Here's the latest:



BC-Plane Crash, 13th Ld,0115
URGENT
Seaplane crashes off Miami Beach; at least 19 killed
Eds: UPDATES with at least 19 dead.
AP Photos
AP Graphic FLA PLANE CRASH
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - 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.
Scuba divers and rescuers in speedboats struggled to reach the
victims but found no sign of survivors as evening fell.

springparrot wrote:

wSPs.

working my FLL connections but nothing to report as of yet.....

AlbatrossFlyer wrote:working my FLL connections but nothing to report as of yet.....

Thanks AF

Unconfirmed: 3 children on the flight.

CG on MSNBC said one person is still missing.

Just logged on for the first time today.

Much sympathy for the families of all those involved. How awful.

I sure hope our BN member was not working on that plane....

conched wrote:Unconfirmed: 3 children on the flight.

Heard this on CNN too.

11 individuals were reportedly from Bimini.

A surfer reported that the aircraft had black smoke, then in flames, and he was about 50 yards away and could feel the heat.

Thanks so much everyone for posting the news and updates.

Thanks, Conched, for posting Chalks' recent posts and for emailing him. I hope we hear soon... Prayers for ChalksOperations!!! Please be okay...

AlbatrossFlyer wrote:working my FLL connections but nothing to report as of yet.....

Thanks, Charlie.

CNN has a link to recovery ops video.

The latest:

Seaplane crashes off Miami Beach; at least 19 killed
Eds: RESTORES background throughout.
AP Photos
AP Graphic FLA PLANE CRASH
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) - 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.
Scuba divers and rescuers in speedboats struggled to reach the
victims but found no sign of survivors as evening fell.
The Chalk's Ocean Airways plane - a twin-engine Grumman G-73T
Turbine Mallard - went down around 2:30 p.m. after taking off from
Miami for the island of Bimini in the Bahamas, crashing in a narrow
channel used by cruise ships, the Federal Aviation Administration
said.
The Coast Guard said 19 bodies were found. The plane was
carrying two crew members and 18 passengers, including three
infants, authorities said.
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."
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.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to
investigate.
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.
Coast Guardsmen and emergency workers wearing protective suits
hauled bodies up from rescue boats, rushing to find victims before
darkness fell. Law enforcement speedboats, divers and helicopters
took part in the search and were joined by others in private boats,
on personal watercraft and on surfboards.
Chalk's Ocean Airways flies between Miami and the Bahamas, using
planes that take off and land 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 in 1919, the airline thrived
during Prohibition, taking bootleggers, their customers and customs
agents to Bimini. According to the airline, its most famous regular
passenger was Ernest Hemingway, who flew to Bimini to go big-game
fishing.
One of its planes 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 Corporation of
Illinois/Atwood Enterprises.
According to its Web site, Chalk's operates 17-passenger Turbine
Mallards.
According to FlightSafe Consultants' Airline Safety Web site,
Chalk's has had no known fatal accidents. Similarly, the NTSB
database shows no fatal accidents for Chalk's since 1982, when the
database started.
The airline had no comment after the crash.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Prayers from Washington.

Many thoughts and prayers heading to Miami.

This has been bothering me since I heard the news an hour ago.... like no other plane crash I can recall... maybe its because I have flown Chalks to the islands, or our BNer may be on the flight or just that its so close to my home.... maybe its the time of year..... Dunno... but this really gets to me...

I just needed to share that .....

Thoughts and prayers to the families