Remarks: Scanned from Fuji slide. Originally built in 1947, and sadly destroyed in a crash off the Miami coast on 19th December 2005 due to a structural failure of the right wing with the loss of 2 crew and 18 passengers.
Remarks: This is the Turbo-Mallard crashed out of Miami on December 19, 2005. The Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashed into the Governement Cut Channel killing all people on board, 18 passengers and two crew members. The cause of the accident was a fatigue failure in the right wing. I took this picture in 2004 in the North Bimini Seaplane Base; it was boarding people on the flight to Miami.
Remarks: Owned and operated by Paspaley Pearls (no Pearl Aviation) for transport of workers too and from the pearl farms along the north western coast of Australia.
Remarks: Originally delivered with P&W Wasp radial engines in the late 1940's, the Grumman Mallard was later retrofitted with more reliable P&W PT6A gas turbine engines. Of the 59 airframes ever built, 3 remain in service with the Paspaley Pearling Company and are used to support its pearling operations in Northern Australia.
Remarks: S/N J-42. Mfd. 1948. Ex-N51151. Waiting for continuation to MPB. This aircraft had an accident on June 11, 2000 while water taxiing at Watson Island, Miami. The Turbo Mallard received minor damage, the two pilots and 15 passengers were uninjured.
