Chalk's Ocean Airways

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, 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.

History
The airline was founded by Arthur "Pappy" Chalk, and started ad-hoc charter operations as the Red Arrow Flying Service in 1917. 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. During prohibition, Chalk's was a major source of alcohol smuggled from the Bahamas to the United States.

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. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the company had to relocate operations due to concerns about port security. Chalk 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 1980s Resorts International purchased Chalk's Airlines, which became the primary air carrier to Paradise Island, near the Bahamian capital Nassau, where Resorts International owned and operated hotels and other resort facilities. Resorts International sold Chalk's in 1991 to United Capital Corporation of Illinois.

Chalk's International's all-amphibian fleet during 1985 consisted of eight Grumman Mallards (three being turboprop conversions) and five ex military Grumman Albatross aircraft.

United Capital expanded Chalk's service to Key West, Florida. In 1996, United sold Chalk's to a group of investors, who operated the airline under the name Pan Am Air Bridge. In early 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 in February 1999. Later the same month the company re-emerged as Chalk's International Airlines. Chalk's emerged from Chapter 11 under new ownership on August 2, 1999. On December 17, 1999, the airline was relaunched as Chalk's Ocean Airways. It is currently wholly owned by Rajan Nair. In 2006 the company reverted to the earlier name of Chalk's International Airlines.

Chalk's operations base is at Watson Island, adjacent to the Port of Miami near downtown Miami, for 75 years, but it moved its base to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after September 11, 2001, where it already had its maintenance base, because of security concerns around the port and increased helicopter traffic around Watson Island.

The airline suspended operations after the crash of Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 on December 19, 2005. The airline had planned to resume flights between Fort Lauderdale and the Bahamas on November 9, 2006, but its airworthiness certificate issued by the Bahamas had expired. As of mid-November 2006, it is flying from Fort Lauderdale to Key West and to St. Petersburg, Florida, using aircraft "wet leased" from and operated by Big Sky Airlines. 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 in August, 2007. Chalk's ceased flying from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after September 3, 2007. Although the US Department of Transportation revoked Chalk's authority for scheduled service, the airline continues to have its FAR 121 operating with a part 298 authority in good standing. The airline is in the process of adding 60 passenger Regional Jets to its FAR 121 operating licence.

Chalk's has 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 continuously operating airline is now given to KLM of the Netherlands, founded later in 1919.

Fleet
During 2006 the airline leased conventional Beechcraft 1900D land planes from Big Sky Airlines which were later replaced by Saab 340A and other wet leased aircraft while working with the Federal Aviation Administration to rebuild its fleet of Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallards.

As of March 2007 the Chalk's International Airlines fleet comprised :


 * 5 Mallards
 * 2 Saab 340A The Saabs were chartered by Chalks from Bimini Island Air

Incidents and accidents
In 1994, Captain John Alberto and his co-pilot 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. 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. 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), but, on December 23, 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 Turbine Mallard, registration N2969, manufactured in 1947. It was the second fatal passenger accident for Chalk's Ocean Airways. A few months after the NTSB released its report on the crash, the airline shut down.