From my rather less than experienced seat, but one that has been involoved in some good, solid safety cultures and one less than sufferable company whose safety culture was less than standard (and convicted for it), I see some very experienced hands offering sound advice.
I seem to remember some time ago there was a little rule of thumb doing the traps. "A person could make it into QF by one of two routes, firstly be related to someone in there already, or have pranged an airframe 'cause sure as eggs you wont do it again!"
Sure, some companies will offer some great reconcillitary action post incident / accident. Others just sack the pilot. Ive seen pilots sacked on the very hint of suspicion. Very few pilots have the guts to stand up and say "well I did stuff up, Im sorry". Good investigation of the incident / accident and reassessment of skills should be encouraged and most often works when put into place. The rewards for the company being, a loyal pilot, one with a new reinforced safety mentality, and no requirement to start from scratch a completely unknown new pilot.
GA unfortunately has a reputation for being a really scarey proposition. Any little thing might just get you sacked. It shouldnt be this way. GA is already the hardest flying anyone has to do in their career. I have been there, and Ive been at the recieving end of some really unfair reprisals after an event where I wasnt even the one flying. I copped heaps both here and face to face.
On another note, now tell me if I am incorrect in saying most ethical operators have hull insurance. Even if the excess is $10k or slightly more, very few operators have to fork out for a new / repaired hull.
I feel for the chap who knew he balls it up. I could just about lay bets he would never do it again.
NC