It costs very many thousands of pounds a year to keep a public cat aircraft in the year and the pilots who are allowed to fly 'fare paying passengers' in them are subject to extremely stringent training and the result is that passengers are transported in a safe, well maintained aircraft piloted by a professionally trained and responsible person.
The passenger who so tragically died in this instance had every right to expect that the aircraft he had paid to fly in was well maintained, safe to fly and was being piloted by a responsible and safe person.
I would agree if you were comparing apples with apples but you are not.
There is a general principle that passengers in public transport operations are protected. For this reason we have regulations covering Public Service Vehicles, Passenger Ferries and Aircraft which are designed to ensure that a member of the public getting on a bus ferry or transport aircraft is protected.
However this isn't what happens in training, whether its on an aeroplane, motorbike, car or boat. If you are having a lesson it's not the same as being a fare-paying passenger where you are paying to be transported form A to B. You are undertaking an activity that is more hazardous than being a passenger of a public transport undertaking and that is a risk you accept. If you learn to sail, the boat doesn't need a Passenger Carrying Certificate. If you learn to drive the vehicle doen't need a public Service Vehicle Licence and if you learn to fly the pilot does not require an ATPL or a CPL and the aircraft does not require a Transport Cat C of A.
There are requirements that come in to play where payment is made either for the hire of the aircraft or to the instructor and these vary according to circumstances but these relate to the fact that payment is made, not to the fact that it is a trial lesson.
The suggestion in the AAIB report is that a modification was carried out incorrectly. In any safety regime it is always possible that someone will get something wrong with tragic results and there are many examples of this happening in public transport aircraft as well as permit types. Taking a "holier than thou" attitude to one airworthiness regime in preference to another is not the answer.
Final paragraph edited.
Heliport