Wasnt the FO in PNG there as food for the Captain in the event of ditching in the jungle?
I reckon its all a matter of training and equipment.
SPIFR is going to be bloody dangerous in any GA company that provides bugger all .
Ive already related the story in the 70s of coming down from PNG and starting work for a GA company flying a stuffed 402 at night with only a fixed card ADF working if you made station passage no A/P no VHF nav or DME one stuffed engine doing a nightly freight run to Melbourne.
Needless to say I only did that once , but the job was happily picked up by someone else.