The Chalk Island web site says that their airplanes were in
the shop for the engine changes and complete mechanical
refurbishment and new paint/interiors.

There should be some preliminary data released by the NTSB
before Christmas or New Year, I would expect.


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
Merry Christmas
Have a Safe and Happy New Year
Live Long and Prosper
Jim Macklin
wrote in message
ps.com...
| This news article
| (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/20/D8EKBRTG0.html)
says that the
| wing was recovered from the water today, and the engine
and prop are
| still attached. There's even a photo showing it. Looks
like the wing
| separated pretty well inboard of the engine. At this
point,
| speculation seems that either a fuel leak/fire melting the
spar... or
| perhaps just simple plain structural failure of the spar
with the fire
| happening afterwards could both possibly explain the wing
separation.
|
|
| Jim Macklin wrote:
| More likely that a fuel line was not properly safetied
or
| otherwise failed. Turbine engines have fuel pressures
as
| high a 1,000 PSI, so the fuel system in the engine is
highly
| stressed. The fuel supply pumps are high capacity and
50 to
| 100 PSI, so again, the fuel connections and lines are
| stressed.
|
| If there was a fuel leak into the nacelle, wing root
area,
| any source of ignition could cause an explosion and the
| resulting fire would soften the aluminum spar quickly.
The
| emergency procedure for a fire is to shut off the fuel
| valves, but if the failure was between the tank and fuel
| tank or the valve was damaged, it might not be possible
to
| shut the fuel off.
|
| The NTSB is very good at investigating this type of
failure,
| the will track melted and bent metal, see the pattern of
| soot and follow the fractures in the metal.
|
|