Chalk’s Ocean Airways and its insurers have committed to providing short-term cash assistance to the families of the victims of Monday’s tragic seaplane crash.
According to Foreign Affairs Minister, Fred Mitchell, the funds were distributed on Wednesday to each next of kin for their immediate needs.
Chalk’s Flight 101 was on its way to Bimini when it went down off Miami Beach shortly after take off, killing all 20 aboard, including three infants. Eleven of the passengers were Biminites.
Mr. Mitchell said the airline also indicated that it would provide “up to a certain level” of emergency support to address concerns like mortgage payments and school fees.
“The insurance company has also assured us that they will be responsible for the funeral expenses for the embalming, the transportation of relatives as well as the remains of their loved ones,” Mr. Mitchell reported yesterday.
The minister also reported that the bodies of all 11 Bahamians who died in the crash have been identified and that the medical examiner has released them to Richardson’s Mortuary, a funeral home that is reportedly well known to Biminites.
“Over the next few days, the embalming and settlement of remains will take place, but understandably this will not be an easy process because of the state of the remains as a result of the accident,” Mr. Mitchell said.
“But the [Bahamas’] Ambassador to the United States, Joshua Sears, has been in touch with our Chief Medical Officer and arrangements are being made for death certificates and the orderly transfer of the remains back home to The Bahamas when the relatives deem they are [ready] to do so.”
Ambassador Sears has also met with the families of the two pilots, Michelle Marks and Paul Desantos, who also died during the crash.
“One of the family members has indicated that it was clear that the pilots had taken extraordinary steps to ensure that the plane did not affect anyone in the water, that they were trying to steer the plane away, even as it plunged to the ground to try and save lives,” said Minister Mitchell.
“And family members of the victims were quite appreciative of that effort. The government also extended our condolences to the families of the pilots and thanked them for all the work that the pilots did.”
Minister Mitchell gave this update yesterday following his second political level visit in the past two days to Miami since the doomed Chalks aircraft broke apart and fell into the water in a channel known as Government Cut.
Minister Mitchell has explained that part of the reason for his return was to address specific assistance family members required.
Accompanying Mr. Mitchell on that trip was Tourism Minister and Bimini MP, Obie Wilchcombe and a team of representatives from the Ministry of Social Services, the National Insurance Board and the Department of Legal Affairs.
According to Mr. Mitchell, who heads the overseas task force to coordinate advice and assistance to the families and friends of the victims, Bahamian Ambassador Sears and Bahamas Consul General to Miami, Alma Adams, have identified several cases of additional needs “over and beyond” what the Red Cross is offering.
“The initial funding having been satisfied, those concerns appear to dissipate and people were more concerned about moving on to the longer term issues of what’s going to happen to the children who are left behind, what happens to the spouses, disabled people who depended on these people and what assistance the government is going to be able to offer,” the Minister explained.
Minister Mitchell acknowledged that despite the family members having neared some conclusion, there is still much need for emotional support.
“Minister Wilchcombe was able to spend several hours talking to them, while Father Simeon Roberts, the rector of St. Cecilia’s, led a prayer service for them and that seemed to have quite a calming effect,” he said.
Father Roberts lost two sisters in the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has meantime wrapped up its phase of investigations in Miami.
The investigations now shift to the NTSB’s headquarters in Washington. D.C.
“They’ve recovered all of the evidence from the scene of the accident and all of that evidence will be airlifted to Washington. That’s where all the laboratory tests, spectral analysis, etc. will take place and then a finding will be made,” said Mr. Mitchell.
On Wednesday, U.S. investigators acknowledged that the 58-year-old Grumman G-73T Mallard craft that lost its wing and crashed in waters off Miami shortly after takeoff had undetected cracks in its airframe, which may have caused the aircraft to break up.
The cracks were found in the main support beam of the wing.
Also recovered was the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, which investigators said was useless, as it was not working.
According to international reports, the NTSB team has interviewed 22 witnesses and four airline employees and is in possession of still photographs and two amateur videotapes.
But officials have stressed that determining the exact cause of the crash could take anywhere from nine to twelve months.
Funeral services for American, Carolyn Burke, a missionary who lived in Bimini after retiring from teaching in North Carolina is scheduled to take place in that state on Tuesday.
Minister Wilchcombe is expected to attend the funeral on behalf of the government.
The Bahamas’ Honourary Consul out of Panama City has already expressed condolences to the family of Sergio and Jackie Danquillecourt, relatives of Don Facundo Bacardi, the founder of premier rum factory in The Bahamas, Bacardi.
According to Minister Mitchell, his colleague also plans to write condolence letters to the families of all of the visitors aboard the flight.
The Cabinet Office has announced that with immediate effect and until further notice, all flags in The Bahamas should be flown at half-mast, as a sign of official mourning for the Bahamians who lost their lives in the crash.
There will also be a period of mourning until the end of the funerals.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
