Originally Posted by
S-Works
The problem here is that the pilots doing the flying are the guys desperate to fly full stop and will take any opportunity. They will listen to the men behind the scenes taking the money saying that its all OK and that its a loop hole, a grey area, a private flight whatever the excuse is and go and do it.
Yes certainly, and I am not the one who is going to cast the first stone here. We all (or at least quite a few of us) have performed one or the other flight with questionable legality at some point during our careers. Like helping out somewhere without asking too many questions. Sometimes an opportunity is too nice to say NO right away. Like a weekend trip to France with all expenses covered for in a plane that I couldn't afford to rent myself. Who can resist a temptation like this, especially if everybody tells you it is "OK".
I have been ramp checked on countless occasions (mostly when performing legitimate commercial work, rarely when doing "private" flights - it really should be the other way round!) but only once ever have the passengers been asked: "Who has arranged this flight and who is paying for your ticket?". If that would be the first question asked by every ramp inspector then the kind of flying that we talk about here would dry out within a year.
But this accident is not only about the legal aspects of the flight itself. It is even more about flying outside one's license privileges and outside one's competence. And here I completely fail to understand how someone can accept an "it's OK". When I don't have a night rating I do not depart at night. No matter what people tell me. It can never be "OK". And there is not a single pilot out there who does not know that.