Wing Broke Off Crashed Miami Plane

Investigators say the deadly crash of a seaplane shortly after takeoff from Miami Beach was apparently caused by the right wing breaking off during flight. It's not known why the wing detached.

Salvage crews Tuesday began raising the wreckage the aircraft which burst into flames and plunged into the ocean within sight of the beach. All 20 people aboard were killed.

The 1940s-era propeller-driven plane was en route to the Bahamas whne it crashed.

After divers searched the wreckage 35 feet underwater, a salvage crane on a barge raised a wing from the aircraft Tuesday afternoon.

Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said most of the answers in the investigation would come from examining the wreckage, which might not be fully raised until Wednesday. He called it a delicate operation because moving the plane too quickly could cause it to break under the weight of the water.

Investigators were still trying to find the cockpit voice recorder, which might have captured any noises or the last words of the pilots. But the main portion of the recorder was in the tail, which Rosenker said was difficult to reach because the plane was mangled.

Eighteen passengers, including three infants, and two crew members were on the Chalk's Ocean Airways flight. At least 11 of the victims were returning home to the island of Bimini, many of them after Christmas shopping jaunts. Weeping islanders went house to house Tuesday to grieve.

"There is not one house, not one family that has been untouched by this tragedy," said Lloyd Edgecombe, a real estate agent and local government council member on Bimini, an island of 1,600 residents.

One of the victims, Sergio Danguillecourt, was a member of the board of directors of Bacardi Ltd. and a great-great-grandson of the rum distiller's co-founder, Don Facundo Bacardi, the company said.

The plane was a twin-engine Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard. It previously had few major reported incidents, and no passengers or crew were injured in any of them, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Rosenker said NTSB investigators were at the airline's office to get maintenance and flight records. Chalk's owner Jim Confalone and general manager Roger Nair did not immediately return calls for comment.

Rosenker urged witnesses with amateur video or photographs of the crash to come forward. He said investigators were helped by accounts of the crash from tipsters and an amateur video obtained by CNN that showed the main part of the aircraft slamming into the water, followed by a flaming object that was trailing thick black smoke.

Within minutes of the crash Monday, rescue workers, boaters and surfers converged on the oil-slicked crash scene. Nineteen bodies were recovered and divers suspended efforts to find the final body late Monday.

"The possibility of anyone surviving is not very likely, but we can't confirm 20 people have died until we locate that 20th person," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss.

Two crew and 18 passengers were on the flight to Bimini in the Bahamas. Many of the victims were returning home to the 7-mile long island after Christmas shopping jaunts.

Maurice D'Giovianni, 42, one of the throngs of surfers at the beach, said he heard a distinct "Boom!" before a wing fell off and the plane, black plumes of flame tailing it, tumbled into the water.

"It exploded in the air, and one of the wings flew out of there," D'Giovianni said. "The other part of the plane was on fire and it just went straight down, like a mosquito."

"I was on the rocks fishing. I seen the plane come down and explode. The wing came off. Just fell straight in the water. It was a big ball of fire," another eye witness told CBS News.

The Chalk's Ocean Airways plane, a twin-engine Grumman G-73T Turbine Mallard built in 1947, was operating under visual flight rules, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.

Coast Guard spokesman Dana Warr also saw the plane take off and then heard the crash from an island in a channel known as Government Cut that cruise ships and freighters take past South Beach into the Port of Miami. Purposefully flying low to stay clear of larger planes, the pilots were not in contact with air traffic controllers and

"Everything looked normal, I saw the aircraft take off like it does every other time. I didn't think anything of it when I saw the black smoke from the pier, until I then heard the Coast Guard alarms go off," he said.

Relatives of some of the victims went to Miami Beach, weeping about their losses. Garred Gadaon, 34 said his sister-in-law Jackey Lavarity, 38, and her 13-year-old daughter, were on the plane.

"The Christmas holiday is a joyful holiday. We had a tragic death today with many of our family members and our friends. It doesn't seem real," said Gadaon.