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Chalk's International Airlines, formerly Chalk's Ocean Airways, was an airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in unincorporated Broward County, Florida near Fort Lauderdale. It operated scheduled seaplane services to the Bahamas. Its main base was Miami Seaplane Base (MPB) until 2001, with a hub at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. On September 30, 2007, the United States Department of Transportation revoked the flying charter for the airline, and later that year, the airline ceased operations.
The airline was founded by Arthur Burns "Pappy" Chalk, and started ad-hoc charter operations as the Red Arrow Flying Service in 1917 flying a floatplane. After "Pappy" Chalk served in the Army Air Service in World War I, he returned to Miami and commenced scheduled service between Miami and Bimini in the Bahamas in February 1919 as Chalk's Flying Service. Chalk's first base was a beach umbrella on the Miami shore of Biscayne Bay. In 1926 a landfill island, Watson Island, was created in Biscayne Bay close to Miami. Chalk's built an air terminal there, and operated from the island for the next 75 years. During Prohibition, Chalk's was a major source of alcohol smuggled from the Bahamas to the United States.
Pappy Chalk sold the airline to a friend in 1966, but continued to be involved in the daily operations of the airline until he retired in 1975. He died in 1977 at the age of 88.
In the early 1970s, Frakes Aviation bought the rights to the aircraft and began a conversion program, replacing the old Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial engines with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprops.[9] By 1985 three of Chalk's eight Grumman Mallards had been converted, with five ex-military piston engined Grumman Albatross aircraft making up the balance of the fleet.
In 1974, Resorts International purchased Chalk's Airlines, which became the primary air carrier to Paradise Island near the Bahamian capital of Nassau, where Resorts International owned and operated hotels and other resort facilities. After Resorts International constructed a short take off and landing (STOL) runway on Paradise Island and switched to using STOL-capable de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprop aircraft operated by subsidiary Paradise Island Airlines, it sold Chalk's in 1991 to United Capital Corporation, an Illinois-based investment firm (which was not affiliated with United Airlines).
The television show Miami Vice, a symbol of both Miami and the 1980s, featured a Chalk's seaplane in its opening credits. N2969, which had a fatal accident in 2005, as Flight 101 is featured in an extended scene at the end of the third-season episode Baseballs of Death, when the antagonist attempts to leave the US. The music video for George Michael's "Careless Whisper" and Miami Vice second-season episode One Way Ticket featured a Chalk's seaplane, N2974. In one of the final scenes of the motion picture Silence of the Lambs, Dr Frederick Chilton is seen disembarking a Chalk's aircraft in Bimini, where Hannibal Lecter is waiting to "have him for dinner". A Chalks plane also makes an appearance at the end of the movie 'After The Sunset' with Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek's characters embracing as they stand next to it. Chalk's fleet was as high-maintenance as it was glamorous. It was a unique carrier, its Watson Island base being the smallest port of entry in the United States. Chalk's revenues were about $7.5 million in 1986, when it carried 130,000 passengers. Most were staying at Resorts International properties, although island residents used the airline for shopping trips to Miami.
United Capital expanded Chalk's service to Key West, Florida, and Nassau and acquired additional aircraft, but struggled financially. In 1996, United Capital sold Chalk's to a group of investors, who operated the airline under the name Pan Am Air Bridge. In January 1998, Texas-based aircraft lease company Air Alaska purchased 70% of Pan Am Air Bridge, but following the collapse of Air Alaska, Pan Am Air Bridge filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection only a year later on January 11, 1999. James Confalone, a businessman and former Eastern Airlines pilot, purchased Chalk's out of bankruptcy for $925,000 on August 2, 1999; it had been reduced to two aircraft and only 35 staff. Confalone bought five additional Grumman Mallard seaplanes and arranged a contract to buy 14 larger Grumman G-111 seaplanes to expand the operation. On December 17, 1999, the airline was relaunched as Chalk's Ocean Airways.
In late 2001 following the September 11 attacks, Chalk's was forced to leave its longtime operations base on Watson Island due to security concerns over its proximity to the Port of Miami. Helicopter traffic had also increased around Watson Island.Operations moved to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where Chalk's already had its maintenance base.
The airline suspended operations after the crash of Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 on December 19, 2005. It had planned to resume flights between Fort Lauderdale and the Bahamas under its earlier name of Chalk's International Airlines on November 9, 2006, but its airworthiness certificate issued by the Bahamas had expired. It resorted to using aircraft "wet leased" from and operated by Big Sky Airlines to operate flights from Fort Lauderdale to Key West and to St. Petersburg, Florida. Chalk's added flights between Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA) and destinations in the Bahamas in late May 2007, but carried only 14 passengers through PBIA that August.
Chalk's ceased flying from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after September 3, 2007. After the final report from the Flight 101 crash investigation was released, the United States Department of Transportation revoked the airline's flying authority for scheduled service on September 30, 2007, effectively shutting down the airline. Chalk's continued to hold its FAR 121 operating with a part 298 authority in good standing, and sought to add 60-passenger regional jets to its FAR 121 operating licence, but these efforts never came to fruition.
Chalk's had claimed to be the oldest continuously operating airline in the world, having begun operations in 1917 and scheduled flights in February 1919, and having only ceased operations for three years due to World War II, two days due to 1992's Hurricane Andrew, and eleven months due to an "at altitude tragedy" on December 19, 2005. The title of oldest operating airline is now given to KLM of the Netherlands, founded later in 1919.
In 1994, Captain John Alberto and co-pilot Alan Turner drowned after their aircraft sank due to the failure of the airplane's bilge pump while they were taxiing at Key West. Captain Alberto left behind a wife and two children. Jimmy Buffett dedicated a chapter to Captain Alberto in his book A Pirate Looks At Fifty.
On December 19, 2005, Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini made an unscheduled stop at Watson Island, Miami.[8] Within a minute of taking-off again, it fell into the sea near Miami Beach. Witnesses said they saw smoke billowing from the plane and the separation of its right wing as it plunged into the ocean.[18] None of the twenty people on board – eighteen passengers and two pilots – survived. At first, only nineteen of the twenty bodies were found (by the Coast Guard and Miami Beach Ocean Rescue); on December 23, 2005, the twentieth was found by two Miami-Dade firefighters while fishing on their day off. Investigators later identified cracks in the main support beam connecting the wing to the fuselage. The plane was a Grumman G-73T TurboMallard, registration N2969, manufactured in 1947. It was the second fatal accident for Chalk's Ocean Airways. A few months after the NTSB released its report on the crash, the airline shut down.
Q-Base 2016 - Die Hards Only
Weeze Airport, Germany
10.09.2016
Client: Q-Dance
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Q-Base 2017 - Die Hards Only
Weeze Airport, Germany
09.09.2017
Client: Q-Dance
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Tech. Sgt. Chris R. Marshel, End of Runway (EOR) Supervisor with the 51st AMXS, Osan Air Base, Korea, performs an EOR inspection on an A-10, March 2, 2004. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Bradley C. Church) (Released)
Dresden Base - mit Piratenflagge = gegenüber von Areal "C 2" ,
bei ner Che Fahne und Toi Häuschen - danke an WBS70 :)
Q-Base 2016 - Die Hards Only
Weeze Airport, Germany
10.09.2016
Client: Q-Dance
© 2016 www.sunny4ya.com
Japanese Submarine JS Takashio (SS 597) and her crew pulls into the submarine piers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for a port visit, Oct. 30. Takashio is the eighth ship in the Oyashio-class of submarines and was commissioned in 2005. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Steven Khor/Released)
Q-Base 2016 - Die Hards Only
Weeze Airport, Germany
10.09.2016
Client: Q-Dance
© 2016 www.sunny4ya.com
Pastry Workshop: Apples in the Big Apple
Pastry Chef Patrice Demers of Les 400 Coups, Montreal, Canada
To read about this visit, please go to The Wandering Eater
© 2010 Tina Wong; The Wandering Eater. All Rights Reserved.
Critically acclaimed best-selling author Mark Bowden (2nd,L), who wrote Black Hawk Down, shakes hands with US Army SSGT Edwin Orellane of Rialto, California, as Spc Jimmy Scherer of Phoenix, Arizona and SSGT Kris Stallard of Fontana, California wait to greet him during an off duty moment at a Transit Center in Southwest Asia as part of the "Operation Thriller II" USO tour on November 4, 2011. During their time downrange the authors will sign autographs, share insider writer techniques, pose for photos and shake hands with troops to boost morale. USO Photo by Mike Theiler
Q-Base 2016 - Die Hards Only
Weeze Airport, Germany
10.09.2016
Client: Q-Dance
© 2016 www.sunny4ya.com
An U.S. Air Force Airman receives a diploma during Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s Airman Leadership School class 20-2 graduation at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage, Alaska, Dec. 19, 2019. ALS is a six week, residence Professional Military Education course that prepares Senior Airmen to be professional, warfighting Airmen able to supervise and lead Air Force teams to support the employment of air, space and cyberspace power. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Emily Farnsworth)
FiDU
MAS Program www.mas.caad.arch.ethz.ch/Home/Home
DMY 2009
dmy-berlin.com/festival/2009/youngsters/
Q-Base 2016 - Die Hards Only
Weeze Airport, Germany
10.09.2016
Client: Q-Dance
© 2016 www.sunny4ya.com
Philadelphia Phillies vs the Toronto Blues. Blue Jays 3, Phillies 0.
Rogers Centre Toronto Ontario Canada
Underneath the bridge scaffolding, stuck at a red light. The way the temporary supports are set up is really interesting.
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- U.S. Army Col. Thomas Roth, left, awards First Place individual and team awards in front of the brigade at Cottonwood Park during the organizational festivities for 2d Engineer Brigade Soldiers and their Families called Arctic Trailblazer Week, Friday, Aug. 10, 2012. Arctic Trailblazer Week finished off with a brigade picnic, food, games, music and awards for individuals, groups and the Commander's Cup. (U.S. Air Force photo by Justin Connaher)