Despite the uncertainty surrounding the fate of Chalk’s Ocean Airways following last week’s horrific crash that killed all 20 onboard, company officials are optimistic that the 86-year-old airline will survive this latest hurdle.
Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said that the airline’s manager, Roger Nairn, told him that he wants to see Chalk’s survive.
“I asked the manager whether he felt the airline is going to survive this. He said he has been working for the company since 1981 – he started out as a baggage handler – and he says he wants to see the company do so,” Minister Mitchell said. “Their market is of course The Bahamas, so they have no reason to have any ill will towards The Bahamas. They want to do what’s best in the circumstances.”
The airline has been in operation since 1919 and is one of the world’s oldest airlines.
It has offered service to Bimini for the past 30 years.
One of the company’s vintage seaplanes – Chalks Flight 101 – was on its way to Bimini last Monday when it went down off Miami Beach shortly after take off, killing 11 Biminites, including three infants.
The victims also included Sergio Danguillecourt — a member of the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd. and a great-great grandson of the rum distiller’s founder, Don Facundo Bacardi — and his wife, Jacqueline Kriz Danguillecourt.
Also a passenger was American, Carolyn Burke, a missionary who lived in Bimini after retiring from teaching in North Carolina.
According to international reports, the crash was the company’s first involving a passenger flight.
U.S. investigators last reported that photos from the deadly crash show a stress crack in the seaplane’s right wing – the same flaw faulted in two fatal crashes in 2002 that killed five people.
According to international reports, in both cases the planes were at least 44-years-old.
Chalk’s Ocean Airways voluntarily grounded its four remaining aircraft for inspection last week.
The company and its insurers have since distributed funds to each of the crash victim’s next of kin to satisfy immediate needs.
The airline has also indicated that it would provide “up to a certain level” of emergency support to address concerns like mortgage payments and school fees.
According to Minister Mitchell, very often airlines and insurance companies settle things without regard for litigation.
“There are principles of law that applies to what level of compensation to which a person is entitled,” he said.
“For example, the crash victims would want to be sure that as they project out into the future, they have secured the amount that satisfies their needs and this would include the children of the family. And this is why I say people ought to be sure before they agree to these things; to be sure what they are entering into.
“Of course, once you sign off on it and you discover something, then it’s too late to deal with it-.But very often these things take place after the funeral. It also turns to some extent how difficult the airline and insurance company are being with the matter.”
Officials at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have stressed that determining the exact cause of the crash could take anywhere from nine to 12 months.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
