Originally Posted by
WHBM
... get quotes and go for the one with the lowest figure in the bottom right corner. Due diligence and such like goes out of the window...
I understand your view, and it may well be true in some instances, but I doubt it's the the case for all. With Jim Croce, for example, the pilot was very experienced (over 14000 hrs, 2000 on type), and although it wouldn't have been the only thing important to me, were I were looking for a charter, I think it would have ticked that particular box. While there were clearly other factors involved in the accident (weather and, sadly, said pilot was also not well - something he may not have known) it's not evident to me that there were any other initial warning signs for someone wanting to charter from that particular operator?
BTW I use the question mark in part because a quick trawl of the 'net only showed an accident 'brief' for N50JR in 1973, and the NTSB search links didn't work so I wasn't able to view the full report. It may be that would reveal other issues that might have raised a flag, but in the meantime the thing that may have concerned me most in terms of heightened risk appears to be weather - something in common, to some degree, with the N 3794N crash.
FP.