All 20 passengers and crew on board the 1947 Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard died in the crash, which was attributed to metal fatigue on the starboard wing resulting in separation of the wing from the fuselage. Chalk's Ocean Airways had to resort to acquiring several un-airworthy Mallards to cannibalize for spares.

Billing itself as "The World's Oldest Airline," Chalk's flew seaplanes in south Florida and the Bahamas for over 8 decades. The drawback of this form of construction is that all the joints around the tank seams have to be sealed, so as to make a fuel-tight tank. In applying the sealant the operator was required to access the inside of the fuel tank using small removable inspection hatches in the top surface of the wing, and of necessity, this resulted in poor visibility and awkward conditions for working inside the tank.

The airline was founded by Arthur "Pappy" Chalk, and started The airline suspended operations after the crash of Chalk's ceased flying from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after September 3, 2007.

In addition, the normal flexing of the wing in flight has a tendency to open seams over extended periods of time, leading to fuel leaks. Just over half of the passengers were Bimini locals returning from Christmas shopping.Sergio Danguillecourt, a member of the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd. (and a great-great-grandson of the rum company's founder Facundo Bacardi), and wife, Jacqueline Kriz Danguillecourt, were on board.

Witnesses saw white smoke billowing from the aircraft before the right wing ripped off and the aircraft plunged into the ocean.The aircraft crashed and sank in Government Cut channel, a waterway which connects the Port of Miami with the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, the sort of aircraft used for Chalk's operations, a passenger-carrying flying boat, is of a type no longer manufactured by aircraft companies, so the option of replacing the aging Mallard fleet with newer designs was not available. The crack had been detected running through a slosh hole (an aperture in the wall of the stringer that allows fuel to flow from one side of the stringer to the other) and seemingly repaired earlier, but the repair was eventually to prove ineffective.The Mallard was designed in the 1940s with a so-called 'wet wing' where the fuel tanks, instead of being separate items within the wing, are constructed from sealed-off portions of the wing structure itself.

Just over half of the passengers were Bimini locals returning from Sergio Danguillecourt, a member of the board of directors of The story of the disaster was featured on the ninth season of Canadian The aircraft involved in the crash, N2969. Witnesses saw white smoke billowing from the plane, before an explosion ripped off the right wing and the plane plunged into the ocean. Pilots had experienced a number of engine failures, and in one incident an elevator control cable snapped in flight, although fortunately the pilot was able to land that aircraft safely. Fatalities. It was the first fatal passenger incident for Chalk's Ocean Airways and was a similar accident to China Airlines Flight 611 which also crashed due to metal fatigue 3 years earlier.On December 19, 2005, Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States to Bimini, Bahamas, with an unscheduled stop at Watson Island, Miami, Florida, crashed off Miami Beach, Florida. The airline had many different owners after the death of founder Arthur Chalk in 1977, also operating under the names Chalk's International, Chalk's Ocean Airways, and Pan Am Air Bridge .

Sergio Danguillecourt undid his seatbelt likely as an effort to escape the aircraft; he either jumped or fell out of the aircraft; his body, the last one found, was recovered by a fisherman near Key Biscayne, nine miles from the crash site. Many such aircraft develop minor skin cracks over time; provided appropriate action is taken to repair any cracking, the safety of the aircraft is not compromised.The unseen cracked stringer on the accident aircraft allowed the right wing to flex more during flight which increased the bending forces at the root such that the visible skin crack slowly increased in length with each subsequent flight.The crack in the underside of the wing grew in length until the wing was so weakened it was unable to support the flight loads during the accident flight, and the wing separated. This caused the fuel contained within the wing to be released which then ignited, resulting in the fire that was seen by witnesses. 1 year ago. “On December 19, 2005, about 1439 eastern standard time, a Grumman Turbo Mallard (G-73T) amphibious airplane, N2969, operated by Flying Boat, Inc., doing business as Chalk’s Ocean Airways flight 101, crashed into a shipping channel adjacent to the Port of Miami, Florida, shortly after takeoff from the Miami Seaplane Base.