All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S02E01.Cracks.in.the.System.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

Miami Beach, Florida.

Sun, sand and calm, blue seas.

But when a tourist points
his camera towards the sky,

he captures a scene of horror.

A plane is falling to the sea.

We have a Code Four,
repeat, Code Four,

a plane down in the water.

As soon as I saw this,
I realized,

I'm like, oh, no, this is
chalk's airplane crashing.

The downed plane

is Chalk's Ocean Airways

Flight 101,
bound for the Bahamas.

Could it have been
a collision with an object?

Could it have been a fire?

Could it have actually
been a criminal act?

Let's notify the FBI.

The incredibly rare
video may hold the answers.

Can you enhance
that for me?

An airline
renowned for safety

has made a fatal error.

But it will take investigators
hundreds of hours

to finally uncover it.

Bingo.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines!

Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Mayday, mayday.

Brace for impact!

I think I lost one.

Investigation starting...

He's gonna crash!

The port of Miami,
December 19, 2005.

Giant freighters and oceangoing
cruise ships are a common sight.

But there's another
much smaller craft

that's often seen in this port.

Chalk's Ocean Airways
flies seaplanes

in and out of
this busy waterway.

Today, Flight 101
from Fort Lauderdale

is making a brief stopover here
on its way to the Bahamas.

Feather propellers.

Check.

Shut down
engine number one.

Shutting down
engine number one.

Chalk's flies to
two regular destinations,

both in the Bahamas.

Bimini, where Flight 101 is
scheduled to land this afternoon

and paradise island.

Ladies and gentlemen,
this is your captain speaking.

We're just making a short
stopover here in Miami

to pick up a couple passengers.

We apologize for the delay.

We'll be on our way again soon.

How many are we picking up?

Just two,
but they're VIPs.

For a small community
like Bimini,

chalk's seaplanes
are a lifeline.

It's just so much
easier in the seaplane

to get to the north island
where most of the population is

than going to
the airport down there.

So that was the main thing,
it was a convenience factor.

Welcome aboard.

Can I see your boarding passes?

Certainly.

Sergio Danguillecourt
is a Bacardi rum executive.

He's the great-great-grandson
of the company's founder.

The family is well-known
in the local Cuban community

for their anti-Castro politics.

He and his wife are flying
to the Bahamas to buy a yacht.

Are the passengers settled in?

We're all set.

Good afternoon, folks.

We'd like to welcome you aboard

Chalk's Ocean Airways
Flight 101 to Bimini.

Our travel time to Bimini
will be 25 minutes.

Hope you enjoy the flight.

Let's have the startup
checklist, please.

Roger.

Michele Marks is
in command of today's flight.

She was promoted to captain
earlier this year.

First officer Paul Desanctis
joined the airline

eight months ago.

Starter on.

Starter on.

This is his first
flight with captain Marks.

All clear to taxi?

All clear.

The Grumman Mallard
is a twin turbo-prop design.

It has a V-shaped hull and
under-wing pontoons.

It's designed to carry
up to 17 passengers.

The plane has retractable
landing gear,

so it can operate on
either land or sea.

Gear coming up.

The takeoff on the Mallard,
depending on the days,

it could be a lot of fun
or it could be a real challenge.

Weight and balance check.

We're good.

The Miami seaplane
base has no control tower.

The crew has to keep a lookout
for boat traffic

as they taxi through one of
the busiest ports in the world.

Taking off in, out of
Miami in the shipping channel,

it's kind of like
trying to take off

during rush hour traffic.

You've got boat traffic,
wave traffic, the wind,

the airplane to deal with,

and everybody's going
different speeds,

and you're trying
to get up and go

and navigate around everybody,
so it was always a handful.

Flight 101
will take off from X44,

a seaplane base near a channel
known as government cut.

Prepare for takeoff.

Roger.
Ready to take off.

Both pilots have
their hand on the throttles.

It's to prevent the captain from
inadvertently pulling back

if the plane hits a wave.

45 knots.

50 knots.

This is the moment
most passengers are paying for--

the takeoff.

Half speedboat, half plane,
it's a unique thrill.

75 knots, 80 knots.

For the pilots,
accelerating through the waves

is often the most difficult part
of the flight.

The airplane itself
was really hard to fly

as far as on the water,
getting onto the step,

which was what we call
getting on a plane.

And in rough sea conditions
and in rough wave conditions,

it could be a real challenge.

But this takeoff
goes smoothly.

Flight 101 is no longer a boat;

it's now a plane
en route to Bimini.

It's 2:38 in the afternoon.

The plane's flight path
takes it past South Beach,

where sunbathers and surfers
are out in force.

Just less than a minute
into the flight,

the Grumman Mallard is climbing
through 500 feet,

well below the clouds.

Then...

The plane rolls
violently and dives.

The pilots barely have time
to register what's happening.

Their struggles are in vain.

By chance,
a tourist from New York

catches Flight 101's
final moments on his camera.

60 seconds after takeoff,
the plane slams into the ocean.

Lucas Bocanegra is a lifeguard
stationed on South Beach,

near the Chalk's Ocean Airways
sea lane.

As soon as
I saw this, I realized.

I'm like, oh, no, this is
the Chalk's airplane crashing.

We have a code four,
repeat, code four,

a plane down in the water.

This is Lucas,
we're launching the jet ski.

The two lifeguards
are the first rescuers

to go looking for the plane.

We drove
as fast as we could

to the scene of the accident.

There was a lot of things
coming through my head.

I was nervous, scared, I was
kind of full of adrenaline.

I wanted to go in

and try to rescue
as many people as we could,

but at the same time,

we've never trained for
a situation like this.

As soon as we turned
government cut

at those jetty rocks,

we noticed that it was
very calm, very quiet.

It wasn't like the ocean side,
where it was very rough.

There was no waves,
it was very, kind of very eerie.

At first, Lucas Bocanegra

finds no sign of Flight 101

or any of the passengers.

Little by little, we
started seeing debris float up

onto the surface of the water.

And we saw some chairs,
some luggage here and there.

And suddenly, we noticed
there was a body in the water.

As soon as we put the body
on our jet ski,

we realized that
from his injuries

that there was nothing
we could do.

From there, it was just try
to recover as many bodies,

you know, bring them back
for their families.

News crews swarm the beach.

Chalk's Flight 101
plummeted into the channel

in full view of tourists
lining Miami Beach.

In a fraction of a second,

the whole plane was
engulfed in flames.

Black smoke
and then an explosion.

Pure fire in the sky.

It was so surreal,

we couldn't believe that
we actually witnessed that.

Chopper four
over the wreckage

as Miami Beach coastguard
look for any survivors.

But the effort is futile.

We retrieved
some of the bodies,

but we were unable to find
anyone that had survived.

All 20 people
on board are dead,

including pilots Paul Desanctis

and Michele Marks.

The residents of Bimini are
devastated by the horrific news.

It was very sad for the crew

and the friends that I had lost
on the airplane.

You never expect an accident
to actually happen.

And to see that on television
like I did,

it was very, very sad.

In Washington, senior
NTSB investigator Bill English

is put on the case.

I was just in my office

doing some routine paperwork
for something else,

and the director stuck his head
around and the corner

and said there's been
an accident.

And I said well, what is it?

And he mentioned
a Grumman Mallard.

So I immediately knew
it had to be Chalk's.

Within hours,

investigators
are at the crash site,

where 19 bodies
have been recovered.

One is still missing.

I was very familiar
with Chalk's Airways.

I'm a seaplane
rated pilot myself,

and there is their reputation,
the legend of Chalk's Airways,

the oldest continuously
operating airline.

Chalk's has
a long and rich history.

The airline was founded in 1917.

During the prohibition era,

passenger lists included
notorious rumrunners.

And later,
Hollywood movie stars.

Chalk's planes even patrolled
for German U-boats

during World War II.

The novelty of
flying at Chalk's

was just all that history,
all the people that have gone.

And it was a really great place
to work for that.

The Grumman Mallard
flying boat that crashed

was built in 1947.

Chalk's Ocean Airways is the
only airline that uses mallards

to transport passengers.

They're not really
a mainstream type of airplane,

and so there's always that
nostalgia about them.

Salvage crews
find the plane's black box.

Investigators send it
to the NTSB in Washington.

The box promises to reveal
critical information

about what the pilots were doing

in the seconds leading up to
the tragic midair disaster.

In any investigation,
the flight data recorder

and the cockpit voice recorder
are a great desire.

The more data, the better.

We can always learn something.

But Bill English knows

he isn't going to get
all the data he wants.

Ok, thanks.

The only recorder
on board the Mallard

was a cockpit voice recorder,
or CVR.

Most airline aircraft
have two flight recorders.

The flight data recorder,
depending on the aircraft,

will record all sorts of
parameters of the flight--

altitude, airspeed,
control positions, and so on.

The Chalk's airplane
was not equipped

with a flight data recorder.

It did have
a cockpit voice recorder.

Though the lack of flight data

is a big disappointment,

media coverage of the crash

gives investigators
a very rare piece of evidence.

Reporter: Authorities revealed
that the final seconds

of Flight 101 were captured
on amateur video.

The dramatic footage was shot
by a tourist on South Beach.

Let's get a copy
of that video.

Ok, let's see it.

The video only captured

the final seconds
of the plane crash,

but it confirms
eyewitness reports

that a wing ripped off
in midair.

Can you enhance that for me?

The video showed the wing

just after separation
from the aircraft,

the main part of
the aircraft fuselage

rolling off in
the other direction

and the fire and smoke
starting from that.

It was quite startling

that the wing would
fall off on this plane.

It was a beautiful day,

the water wasn't rough
on the takeoff,

and all of a sudden,
this wing just dropped off.

It must have been
absolutely devastating.

However, the video can't reveal

why the wing came off.

Answers to that question
may lie at the crash site,

where salvage crews are
finishing their recovery

of the wreckage of Flight 101.

The right wing is found
separate from the plane,

but largely intact.

Wings falling off aircraft,

in modern day situations,
is a very rare, extreme event,

and there's only been
a few cases of them

in the past 20 or 30 years.

In Washington,

another type of examination
is already underway.

At the NTSB lab,
technicians are busy

analyzing the Mallard's
cockpit voice recorder.

The cockpit voice recorder,
or CVR,

which does what it sounds like,
records the pilots' voices,

talking to each other
or on the microphones.

But the tape is
a jumble of voices and sounds.

Technicians can't retrieve
any useful information.

It turned out that
the erase-head function,

it's just like a tape recorder

that most people
are familiar with,

it didn't erase the old stuff.

So every subsequent flight
kept getting recorded over

and over and over again
and just became a muddled sound,

and it wasn't audible to us,
or useful.

It's another setback.

Ok, let's revisit this again,

because we're running out
of options here.

Investigators have

fewer and fewer
tools to work with.

Bill English considers
the possibility that Flight 101

hit turbulence so violent
that it tore the plane apart.

But the weather
on the day of the crash

doesn't support that theory.

There were no storms

that could have caused
such severe turbulence.

Clearly, something else
had torn this plane apart.

There's a possibility the
Mallard collided with something

in the water before takeoff.

Seaplanes don't take off
of a conventional runway,

they're in water where there
could be things like logs

or other debris,
which could potentially cause

structural issues
with an aircraft.

But before they can reach

a conclusion on that theory,

investigators consider some
other intriguing evidence.

It's an urgent advisory

issued by the Federal Aviation
Administration, or FAA.

It warns that
due to a faulty part,

the propellers on the Mallard
could come off during flight.

You're kidding me.

Something such as
a blade separation,

losing part of the propeller,

could cause a great structural
load on the aircraft.

English now
has a solid lead.

But his team is still missing
the evidence they need

to prove their case.

The entire island is
devastated by the loss of life

as investigators
searching for answers

wait for more wreckage
to be pulled from the sea.

In the aftermath
of the crash,

Chalk's Ocean Airways
grounds its remaining fleet

of four Grumman Mallards.

At the NTSB's
Miami command post,

they're working to identify
various plane fragments

and other debris from the crash.

We started out with
the wing itself that separated,

the spar, which is the main part
of the structure of the wing

and any of the other
fracture surfaces,

looking for obvious
initiation factors.

They carefully
examine the propellers,

looking for evidence that might
confirm suspicions

raised by the FAA advisory.

But it's another dead end.

We were able to determine

all the blades were attached

and the bending that we saw
was the expected pattern

from proper operation when
those blades hit the water.

Once again,
they're back to square one.

This is what
I want you to look at.

Investigators
focus their attention

on the fractured wing.

They've noticed sooting
on parts of it.

It's evidence of
a very rapid fire.

We want to find anything

that could be the initiating
factor for the wing separation.

Could it have been a collision
with an object?

Could it have been a fire?

Could it have actually been
a criminal act?

The burn marks raise
a sinister possibility.

An explosion.

A bomb.

This now falls outside
the NTSB's area of expertise

and authority.

Let's notify the FBI.

The FBI helps us in many
of our investigations,

and we'll utilize
some of their experts

to rule out terrorism
or a criminal act.

If it was a bomb
that brought down Flight 101,

a likely target could have been
one of the 18 passengers.

Thanks for coming in,

we're going to need
your help on this.

So I got the list here...

One name stands out
on the passenger manifest--

Sergio Danguillecourt.

Welcome aboard.

Can I see your boarding passes?

Certainly.

There are rumors
on the Internet

that the crash was
an assassination plot

and Danguillecourt
was the target.

His family made a fortune
in pre-Castro Cuba.

They were so opposed to
Fidel Castro's regime

that they had allegedly
supported clandestine attempts

to overthrow
his communist government.

This is your copy,
all right.

Now, there's something
I wanted to show you.

We can't tell if it's just soot
or it's explosive residue.

A bomb will leave
chemical traces

and distinctive patterns
in the torn metal.

FBI technicians are specially
trained to detect them.

The samples from the wreckage
will be tested at FBI labs

in Quantico, Virginia.

Four days after the accident,

salvage crews are still
bringing in wing fragments

found at the crash site.

So, we need everything

that looks like it'd come
from the right wing.

Can we get some light over here?

Over-stress.

Most of the damage they see

is from over-stress fractures,

areas where the metal was
literally ripped apart

when the wing tore off.

Come here.

That's the same.

When metal is suddenly stressed

to the point of breaking,

the fracture leaves a very
distinctive rough edge.

It's easy to distinguish it
from fractures

that have developed
slowly over time.

Cut this from here to here

and get it to Clint
in Washington.

As we started to examine
the right wing, spar,

and other components on scene
at the coast guard station

or the seaplane base, this was
a visual examination there.

We didn't have
the sophisticated lab tools

that we have at headquarters.

They identify parts
to be shipped to the lab

in Washington, where they hope
closer inspection will reveal

exactly what went wrong
with the wing.

Hey, Clint.

Clint, we're sending you as much
of the wing as we have your way.

Yeah, ok.

Yeah, I know, I'm still waiting
for that report.

The results from
the FBI explosive test come in.

A midair bombing assassination
could explain everything.

But there is no explosive
residue on the wreckage.

Ok, so that rules that out.

Structural failure
is now the chief suspect

in the downing of
Chalk's Flight 101.

Well, that's all that's left.

That's tomorrow.

It was obvious the airplane

had a catastrophic
structural failure.

So, we needed to
find out the cause,

the initiating factor of
that structural failure.

He needs to know more
about the long history

of this particular
Grumman Mallard.

It's very typical in
any accident investigation,

we want to look at
the maintenance history

of an aircraft.

For an aircraft
that's 60 years old,

that's even more so important.

Clint Crookshanks is
a structures investigator

for the NTSB.

When we go
into an investigation,

we try to go in
with a very open mind

and look at the wreckage

and let it tell the story
for what happened.

We wanted to look at every piece
that broke on the right wing

to determine if this was
an age-related failure

or if it was something that was
caused by a structural overload.

As with most aircraft,

the Mallard's wings are built
from aluminum alloy.

The spars run the length
of each wing.

In between the spars
are stringers

that give added support.

Together, these parts
make up the wing box,

which also doubles
as a fuel tank.

And then the skin is over top

of all of that structure

to kind of give a smooth,
aerodynamic look to the wing.

All of these together work
to carry the flight loads

that the wing is
designed to carry.

Once you compromise
one piece of that structure,

the ability to carry
the normal flight loads

has been compromised.

Thanks.

Over the years,

the wing box had been
repaired many times.

Chalk's mechanics had patched up
areas damaged by corrosion,

which is not unusual
for an aging aircraft,

especially a seaplane.

The fact
that they land on water

means that their takeoff and
landing loads are different

than you would have on
an land-based airplane.

Also, they're always in water,

and the corrosive effects of
water are going to happen

more readily on those airplanes.

But when
investigators examine

the rest of the Chalk's fleet,

they find that the Mallards
are in far worse shape

than they imagined.

Corrosion repairs.

Corrosion.

Corrosion, corrosion, corrosion.

Corrosion repairs.

Lots of them.

The accident airplane and the
other airplanes in Chalk's fleet

were rife with
maintenance issues.

Corrosion was rampant
on all the airplanes.

There was evidence of
shoddy maintenance practices

on all of their other airplanes.

Many, many of
the repairs exhibited

extremely poor workmanship
and quality,

double, triple drilling
of holes,

excessive grinding of corrosion,
scars on the material.

And this involved
the structural repairs

that were made to the aircraft
over the past few years.

Crookshanks' attention is drawn

to a section of
the lower right wing.

There is a metal patch,

called a doubler, on the surface
of the wing's skin.

A doubler
is simply a sheet of metal

that goes over top of the skin
and it acts as a load transfer,

it acts as a second piece of
skin to patch the crack.

It's kind of like the patch
on a pair of jeans.

This is a big repair job.

You sure we don't have
anything on this?

It's an intriguing discovery.

The patch is located exactly
where the wing broke off

from the rest of the plane.

When he takes a closer look
at this section of the wing,

Crookshanks notices the edges
are smooth and shiny,

totally unlike the rough edges

he's been seeing
on other debris.

We've got to see
what's under this.

This crack is
not from over-stress.

Instead, Crookshanks suspects
it developed over many years

as the result of metal fatigue.

Metal fatigue
is a process by which

any piece of metal,
a wing spar or anything,

is repetitively
loaded and unloaded.

You can think of it as bending
a paper clip back and forth,

and everyone's done this,

and after a while,
it eventually breaks.

Metal fatigue
in the wings is caused

by the stress of flight over
the lifetime of the aircraft.

Crookshanks is eager to find out

what's underneath
the metal patch.

Ok, let's see
what this doubler's hiding.

They find
even more metal fatigue.

Deep cracks cut across the wing.

The extent of the damage
is staggering.

A crack nearly 16 inches long.

Man, oh, man.

Investigating further,

Crookshanks makes another
disturbing find.

Three machine holes
in the skin

forward of the leading edge.

All three appear to be
stop drill holes.

The holes indicate
that Chalk's mechanics

had been trying to stop the
crack from spreading further.

Years earlier, a mechanic
had spotted the crack

on the lower surface
of the wing.

He repaired it by drilling
a hole in the path of the crack.

It's called a stop drill hole.

The end of a crack,

you could see even
with the naked eye,

is sharp, it comes to a point.

That tends to want to
develop a crack more.

By drilling a hole
at the end of the crack,

then would spread out
the stress,

and the idea is to stop
the growth of the crack there.

But the stop
drill holes didn't work.

An attempt was made
to repair that skin

on three different occasions
by stop drilling.

Even as mechanics
put in more holes,

the crack kept growing.

After the third stop drill,

an attempt was made to
further repair the wing

by attaching doublers on the
interior and exterior surface

of the skin.

But the doublers
didn't work either.

The crack on the plane's skin
continued to grow.

Investigators now know
the right wing was damaged

long before the day
of the accident.

What they don't understand

is why the crack
could not be stopped.

But a glimmer of an answer comes

when they learn the plane was
sending out warning signs

of a deeper,
more serious problem.

The Chalk's airplane
involved in the accident

was showing evidence of
chronic fuel leaks

for a long period of time,
for many years.

According to the log,

fuel leaks from the right wing
were repaired again and again.

But they kept happening.

The crews started to
notice repeated fuel leaks

during standard operations,

and we tried to bring it up
to attention of management,

just for our concerns.

Just two days
before the crash,

it happened again.

While doing routine maintenance
on the Mallard,

a mechanic came across fuel
dripping from the right wing.

They always
address the problem

with trying to reseal
the fuel tanks

or trying to fix whatever
problem they thought they had.

It always seemed to be
a reoccurring issue.

The procedure
for plugging a leak

was to apply a chemical sealant

to the inside of
the empty fuel tank.

The sealant would
take a day to dry.

Then the plane could be refueled
and returned to service.

The leaks should have
been a clue

that the crack in the wing skin
was just the tip of the iceberg,

that there was a much
more dangerous problem

with the wing's
interior structure.

Fuel leaks in
this particular aircraft

are indicative of a problem
with the wing structure.

In fact, Grumman put out
a service bulletin back in 1963

that warned mechanics, chronic
fuel leaks are an indicator

of a structural issue
with the aircraft.

Ok, let's see
what we got here.

Crookshanks
examines the pieces

that make up
the right fuel tank.

Some kind of sealant.

He wonders why
the fuel leaks persisted

in spite of the constant efforts
to repair them.

Hand me that scraper, please.

Thank you.

Beneath the layers of
sealant, he finds the answer.

Bingo.

Cracks in
a critical support beam

called a Z-stringer.

It's the piece that the plane's
skin was directly attached to.

Alright, will you
finish cleaning this off

and then get some pictures, ok?

Thank you.

Crookshanks finds evidence

that Chalk's mechanics had tried
to repair the stringer.

It appears that
they did some grinding

on this Z-stringer to remove
a fatigue crack.

However, they never went back in
and reinspected that area.

Instead, they only
applied chemical sealant

to the area,
to make it leak-proof.

And in the process,
concealed the damage.

Chalk's made repeated attempts

to repair the airplane

by stop drilling
the wing skin cracks,

adding doublers
over top of the cracks,

but they never addressed
the root of the problem,

which was the cracked
Z-stringer.

The reason they couldn't
address the Z-stringer

is it was covered
in fuel tank sealant.

The broken Z-stringer
weakened the entire wing.

Now with every
takeoff and landing,

the plane's skin was
absorbing the forces.

Over time, the skin began
to crack as well.

The final outcome
was inevitable.

The fatigue cracking
reached critical length

and the wing separated
from the airplane.

Investigators
conclude that a hidden crack

in a key component
of the right wing

led to the devastating crash
of Flight 101.

Chalk's failure to identify
such a serious problem

now forces investigators
to reexamine

the airline's long history.

Chalk's Ocean Airways
had an image

as one of the safest airlines
in the world.

Despite the age of their fleet,

the airline had an outstanding
record of safety,

dating back almost 90 years.

Chalk's safety record
was great.

They had never lost a passenger
in all their years of operation.

Chalk was an old,
established company.

But it seems to me that
somewhere along the line

the management and
the quality of the work done

had slipped quite a bit
from in the past years.

What have you got

on the financial state
of this company?

Investigators
are beginning to suspect

that the company's
reputation for safety

may have been undermined in
recent years by money problems.

Financial issues
in an airline,

especially a small carrier
like this,

can manifest themselves
in many ways.

Personnel are sometimes
one of the first things to go.

A search of
Chalk's financial history

uncovers some trouble.

In the 1980s, Chalk's went
through a string of owners

before going bankrupt in 1999.

The airline was revived
by a Miami businessman,

but it kept losing money.

Just a few months
before the crash,

the last attempt to sell
the business fell through.

Not doing so well.

It wasn't a secret

that we were having
financial difficulty.

The pilots had taken pay cuts,

and the captains had
taken concessions,

and you know, we downsized a lot
as far as personnel.

It wasn't just
personnel who felt the pinch.

It was difficult
for Chalk's to find spare parts

and to do some of their repairs.

Chalk's had a number of
other un-flyable aircraft

that they owned that they would
cannibalize for spare parts.

There were maybe only 50
or 55 aircraft ever built.

In that case, the original
manufacturer, Grumman,

was no longer in production
of that aircraft,

they no longer supplied parts.

The airline's
deteriorating health

and the shortage of spare parts
had a direct impact on safety.

There's so much regulation

and there's so much
just necessity

to make the airplane fly,

it's hard to skimp
on maintenance

and not impact reliability.

And if you don't
have reliability,

then you're just
spiraling downhill.

But no matter
how tight the finances were,

as a commercial airline,

Chalk's should have been
closely monitored

by the Federal Aviation
Administration.

In fact, the FAA did assign
an inspector

to work closely with Chalk's.

The FAA inspector,

which is called a Principal
Maintenance Inspector,

was responsible
for the oversight

of the maintenance program,
as carried out by Chalk.

The inspector was aware

the plane was suffering
from chronic fuel leaks.

And yet, inexplicably, he gave
Chalk's a clean bill of health,

just two months
before the crash.

What was this guy doing?

Investigators
are at a loss to explain

why the FAA inspector didn't
pick up on warning signs

the Chalk's seaplane
was giving off.

The fact that Chalk was
an old, established carrier,

maybe they just accepted, well,

there's only two or three
planes, it's a small operation,

they only fly during
the nice weathers,

and they're good old boys
over there,

they know what they're doing.

The FAA may not have
found fault with Chalk's,

but it turns out
that several people

very close to the airline did.

We did talk
to this group of pilots

who had left Chalk's
prior to the accident.

And every single one of them
did have some story

about maintenance aspects
on their aircraft.

Whether it had to do
with fuel leaks

or other maintenance aspects,

they all had
some level of concern

about the way Chalk's
was taking care

of these very old airplanes.

In fact,
the pilots were so concerned

that in the year
leading up to the crash,

many of them met
to discuss the problem

of declining maintenance.

One major issue
that had happened,

we had an elevator cable
that had snapped in flight,

and the crew, luckily, was able
to get the airplane down

using power and different
settings and shifting people.

But in most scenarios,

that would have been
an accident in itself.

In aviation there's error chains
that they talk about,

and you have to just--

and if you keep compiling
one link after another,

it's only a matter of time
before an accident will occur.

And from my point of view,

I thought that if they kept
going down the same road

that they were going down,
something could happen.

Eventually,
captain Weber decided

he'd seen enough close calls.

My turning point and
why I decided to leave Chalk's,

was I just had seen too many
things in the recent months,

too many mechanical issues that
were major issues in my mind.

And I had three engine failures
myself that year.

And I had a wife at home
that was pregnant.

I had lost, I guess,
my confidence

in the company's ability
or the airplane,

and I just had had enough.

The NTSB's report
on the crash of Flight 101

harshly criticizes the FAA

for not detecting
growing maintenance

and financial problems
at Chalk's.

Had the maintenance
program or the FAA stepped back

and said these aircraft need
more than just a one-time fix,

they need something
much deeper than this,

the accident probably
would not have happened.

It also
uncovers a loophole

in the FAA's aging
aircraft regulations,

which require extra inspections
for older planes.

But those rules didn't
apply to Mallards.

The Grumman Mallard

was manufactured in 1947.

It only carried 17 passengers,

and it was not a transport
category airplane.

Therefore, it was exempt from
these supplemental inspections.

What we have here is

the FAA has made an aging
airplane safety rule,

and they've exempted the oldest
airplanes in the fleet.

The NTSB recommends
that the FAA expand

its oversight of aging planes.

I think we've used
this accident to point towards

the industry and the FAA

to make sure that they take
a look at the overall picture

of what's going on
at an air carrier.

Flight 101 spelled the end

of Chalk's Ocean Airways.

A few months after
the report was released,

the airline shut down.

There was a lot of history

and a lot of family community
involved with the passengers,

as well as the people
in the airline.

So to see the whole airline
and everything else

kind of go down
with the airplane

is additionally emotional for
everybody that ever worked there

or ever loved the airplanes.