Post by walterleo on Dec 19, 2013 21:56:24 GMT
Hi friends:
The 19th of december is not only my birthday, that day in year 2005 was also the day when I feared I had lost my best friend in the crash of Chalks flight 101.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk%27s_Ocean_Airways_Flight_101
That day I was in Mexico City and as always Gunther had promised to call me "after his sheduled flight to Bimini". Gunther at that time was flying as first officer for Chalks on their Grumman Turbine Mallard. Despite technical problems he liked that form of flying a lot. We knew each other from General Aviation flying till Gunther went to Miami to open his flight school and to work himself up the career ladder to a turbine left seat. Thanks to his personal circumstances he did not need to fly for a living he flew for pleasure even as a comerical pilot.
That 19. th of december 2005 passed without his phone call and next day the Mexican TV news were full with the horrible pictures of a Chalks Grumman Turbo Mallard loosing its wing and falling burning into Miami harbour. As an ex-pilot I knew: If Gunther was onboard, he and his passangers had not suvived that accident. After several unsucessful calls to his phone numbers two days later Gunther was on the phone. Thanks to a cirugical intervention to his wife he had swaped this flight with his pilot friend and collegue Paul DeSanctis and the Captain was Michele Marks she had flown regularily with Gunther. It was not a consolation, that exactly pilots who had warned their company from problems and not ill treated the old bird as others did, exactly died in the crash which ended the story of the then oldest airline of the world.
A cineastic monument of the Chalks Grumman Turbine Mallard can still be seen in the opening sequences of the original TV series "Miami Vice" and in the nice comedy "After Sunset"
Kind regards
Walter
The 19th of december is not only my birthday, that day in year 2005 was also the day when I feared I had lost my best friend in the crash of Chalks flight 101.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk%27s_Ocean_Airways_Flight_101
That day I was in Mexico City and as always Gunther had promised to call me "after his sheduled flight to Bimini". Gunther at that time was flying as first officer for Chalks on their Grumman Turbine Mallard. Despite technical problems he liked that form of flying a lot. We knew each other from General Aviation flying till Gunther went to Miami to open his flight school and to work himself up the career ladder to a turbine left seat. Thanks to his personal circumstances he did not need to fly for a living he flew for pleasure even as a comerical pilot.
That 19. th of december 2005 passed without his phone call and next day the Mexican TV news were full with the horrible pictures of a Chalks Grumman Turbo Mallard loosing its wing and falling burning into Miami harbour. As an ex-pilot I knew: If Gunther was onboard, he and his passangers had not suvived that accident. After several unsucessful calls to his phone numbers two days later Gunther was on the phone. Thanks to a cirugical intervention to his wife he had swaped this flight with his pilot friend and collegue Paul DeSanctis and the Captain was Michele Marks she had flown regularily with Gunther. It was not a consolation, that exactly pilots who had warned their company from problems and not ill treated the old bird as others did, exactly died in the crash which ended the story of the then oldest airline of the world.
A cineastic monument of the Chalks Grumman Turbine Mallard can still be seen in the opening sequences of the original TV series "Miami Vice" and in the nice comedy "After Sunset"
Kind regards
Walter
