Chalk’s Grounds Mallards in Wake of Accident
Chalk’s Ocean Airways has voluntarily grounded its remaining fleet of four Grumman Turbo Mallards after investigators found a serious fatigue crack in the wing spar of the Mallard that crashed off Miami Beach on Monday. Meanwhile, NTSB investigators spent yesterday poring over flight and repair records and scrutinizing Chalk’s maintenance program, developed for the salt-water environment and rough landings the amphibians encountered each day. Although salvage crews recovered the cockpit voice recorder yesterday along with most of the wreckage, the device malfunctioned and revealed no clues. The airplane carried no flight data recorder. The 1947 Mallard G-73T (N2969) had taken off Monday shortly before 2:40 p.m. for a flight to Bimini in the Bahamas, when only seconds later it broke apart in an inferno and fell into Government Cut channel. All 18 passengers and two crewmembers died in the crash.

Competitor Gets Control of MedAire
Health and security assistance provider MedAire disclosed that its two largest shareholders have reached a letter of agreement “outlining mutual goals and strategies in relation to the direction and control of MedAire” that would effectively place control of the company in the hands of its largest competitor, International SOS (ISOS). One of the shareholders is MedAire founder, chairman and CEO Joan Sullivan Garrett, who owns approximately 32.5 percent of the company’s outstanding voting stock. The other is Best Dynamic Services, which has acquired 22.78 percent of MedAire’s outstanding voting stock and is also a subsidiary of ISOS. The current four-member MedAire board of directors will be replaced by a new board made up of six members to be named by Best Dynamic Services and three by Sullivan Garrett. The agreement also calls for the appointment of James Williams, a senior ISOS executive who previously ran ISOS operations, to the MedAire board. An insider said the move is neither a merger nor an acquisition, but is in essence "a de facto takeover" of MedAire by ISOS.

Air Traffic Organization’s Keegan To Leave
An announcement is expected imminently that Charles Keegan will be leaving the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) for a senior position at Raytheon. As v-p for operations planning at the ATO, Keegan, 47, has been one of its most visible spokesmen and a strong advocate of system modernization and the application of new technology. A pilot, he joined the FAA in 1979 as an air traffic controller, and subsequently occupied a variety of senior ATC posts. In his current position at the ATO, he has been responsible for the FAA’s Flight Plan, the agency’s operational evolution plan and the joint program development office, in addition to  overseeing other agency functions. "Charlie may have been short in stature," said a  colleague, "but he’s leaving a very large pair of shoes to fill." The ATO was established in February 2004 with the objective of turning ATC services into a "performance-based" organization that operates more like a business with clear lines of accountability.