Okay, they screwed up and crashed and killed everybody. After the fact, we look for the "why" of it.
Best description that I've read of this accident: Two single-pilots flying a machine by themselves together that neither were familiar with nor comfortable in. At night. Over water. Under pressure.
We tend to assume that the guys flying the S-76's and AW139's and such are the "best of the best"...the most highly-trained (and paid!)...the most disciplined...why, the very cream of the crop of the rest of us R-44 goobers. Then we read a CVR transcript like the one from this accident and go, "Yikes! Them guys were two goobers just like me!" Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
What struck me was this: As the passengers were boarding, I expected that the two of them would engage in *some* sort of takeoff briefing. Something. Like, maybe one of them would verbalize what he was about to do so the other one would know what to expect. But no. All of a sudden, I'm reading and I understand that they'd already taken-off! Seemed to me like they both got Spatial-D pretty quick. The guy on the controls obviously had it, but the PNF probably had it too. Otherwise, as it was all going to hell (pear-shaped?) he should've said, "Okay, *I'VE* got the controls!" and then saved the day...night.
Very sad. I don't know that I'll ever look at corporate pilots the same way again.