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For a short-hop airline, Chalk's comes with a long history

Chalk's Ocean Airways, which touts itself as the world's oldest surviving airline, has suffered through an involuntary bankruptcy and multiple owners during the latter half of its 86-year history.

Founder Arthur "Pappy" Chalk kept control of what was originally known as Chalk's Flying Service until 1966 when he sold it to a friend. The next significant owner was Resorts International, the Bahamian casino and hotel operator controlled by developer Donald Trump, and eventually by television entertainer Merv Griffin. Resorts bought Chalk's in 1974 and sold it in 1991.

Resorts used the service to ferry gamblers to its casino on Paradise Island. Gradually, the role for seaplanes diminished as Resorts built a runway near its casino and bought big, modern land-based planes. But the seaplanes remained on view. The opening montage of the 1980s television drama Miami Vice featured a Chalk's plane swooping low past palm trees and cruise liners, helping to set the scene that made Miami Beach cool again. By the time of its sale in 1991, Chalk's had only four seaplanes.

In 1996, then-Chalk's owner Seth Atwood sold the company to a partnership group that included Pam Am Corp., an affiliate of the reincarnated Pan American World Airways. The new owners renamed the airline Pan Am Air Bridge, but sold it in 1998 to Air Alaska Commuter Holdings, with Pam Am retaining a 30 percent stake.

Air Alaska declared bankruptcy in January 1999, which led to Chalk's reorganization and recapitalization. The struggling Fort Lauderdale-based airline was acquired after bankruptcy reorganization for $925,000 in August of that year by entrepreneur and former Eastern Airlines pilot Jim Confalone, who renamed it Chalk's Ocean Airways. Under Confalone's guidance, Chalk's has refurbished its fleet and upgraded its onshore facilities.

Confalone and his wife, Karen, are also reported to be the owners of Big Squaw Mountain Resort and Ski Area in Maine and had planned to expand Chalk's flights to and from Bangor International Airport as a tie-in with the resort. Recent newspaper reports indicate expansion plans for the resort have "stalled."

Chalk's has had a colorful history. The airline thrived during Prohibition, taking bootleggers, their customers and customs agents to Bimini. According to the airline, its most famous regular passenger was Ernest Hemingway, who flew to Bimini to go big-game fishing.

By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Chalk's was an established fixture in the region, counting among its customers Errol Flynn, Judy Garland, Howard Hughes and Al Capone.

One of its planes was hijacked to Cuba in 1974. Since then, its planes stopped carrying enough fuel to get to Havana.

According to FlightSafe Consultants' Airline Safety Web site, Chalk's has had no known fatal accidents involving passengers. Similarly, the National Transportation Safety Board database shows no fatal accidents for Chalk's since 1982, when the database started.

The only crash involving fatalities occurred March 18, 1994, when two pilots died after crashing near Key West.

Information from the Sun-Sentinel, Associated Press, Aviation International News and the Bangor Daily News was used in this report.

[Last modified December 21, 2005, 00:52:16]