1979 - that airplane was 43(!) years old.
No longer economical to operate in a charter environment, new paint and interior to be sold off to a private owner who was of age as well.
Doesn’t matter if a type rating needs to be flown to ATP standard, that’s a matter of training and only needs to be demonstrated once.
Maintaining proficiency is an entirely different animal.
Even being legal to operate doesn’t equal safe.
Let’s not pretend this was an unfortunate unavoidable accident.
This tragedy would have been entirely avoidable with a 2-pilot professional crew.
Last edited by B2N2; 5th Sep 2022 at 15:44.