By IANTHIA SMITH and KEVA LIGHTBOURNE

Guardian Staff Reporters

ianthia@nasguard.com

NASSAU – It has been dubbed the biggest tragedy to hit the Island of Bimini. Now family members of the 11 Bahamians who died when the Chalk's Flight 101 plunged into waters off Miami Beach last year are putting pressure on the owners of the airline to admit their mistakes.

Yesterday, The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released documents which disclosed that the vintage Chalk's seaplane that crashed on December 19 had several major repairs to the wing that separated just after takeoff, but correct maintenance procedures were not always followed. This news angered the victims' families, who accused the airline of negligence for withholding this vital information from them.

"I don't feel my confidence would ever be restored in this company," said 27-year-old Quinton Ellis. "Not right up to now. I don't think it would be restored ever again. Unless they come out and say it was their fault or something like that."

Quinton's mother, Genevieve, was one of the victims who died on that fatal flight.

According to the NTSB reports, some Chalk's pilots became so worried about overall maintenance problems in 2004, that three captains resigned. The documents did not say what caused the 58-year-old Grumman G-73T Turbo Mullard to crash. Investigators at the crash scene, however, quickly found fatigue cracks in supports of the right wing that came off just after the seaplane took off and similar cracks in the left wing structures.

"The roots of both wings on the seaplane suffered several fuel leaks in 2005 and pilots frequently described "elevator flutter" or vibration in the months before the crash," international reports said.

"In November, only a few weeks before it went down, the vibrations were noted in writing nine times." Rosethel Stuart, a relative of crash victims Sabrina Dean, Barto Dean, Jacqueline Stuart-Levarity and baby Sabre'a, said she has lost all confidence in the company that so many Biminites once had faith in.

"That was very bad," she said through a cracking voice. "Chalk's knew that they had that problem and they should not (have flown that seaplane). I told him they could give me all the money in the world and (it) still (won't) bring my family back."

Fighting back the tears, Stuart said the mere thought of planes and flying brings back painful memories that haunt her. As she reminisced about the day she got the heart-breaking news, anger quickly rose in her voice when she remembered that the plane that took down her family, will soon spread its wings again.

"They should not allow Chalk's to fly again, knowing that they done kill 20 people," she said. "Mind you, that's just how the world goes, it's in circles." Quinton Ellis echoed her cries.

"That is what I can't understand," he said. "They haven't said anything to us but they already put in the papers, that they would be back on November 1."

The four remaining Chalk's seaplanes and 30 others that had been flying around the United States, were grounded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Adminis-tration (FAA).

The seaplane inspection dilemma is the latest chapter in the ongoing debate in the U.S. about such ageing aircraft.

It started in 1988, when a large section of an older Aloha Airlines jetliner was torn off over Hawaii because of metal fatigue. A flight attendant died and many of the 89 passengers were seriously injured.

Since then, the FAA has issued dozens of safety directives aimed at fixing such things as old wiring and hydraulic systems.

Jim Burin, Director of Technical Programmes for the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation said, "We haven't solved the problem, but we are addressing the problem."

As for the solution, it will come too late for the families of the doomed Chalk's flight 101.