Coco Chanel you hit the nail on the head: "to leave or be loyal" in the end loyalty didn't pay.
Guvnor, the real problem was not MK, or others of that ilk, but internal. And all the internal problems can be laid at the door of one person - the president. Even though others may have made poor management decisions, ultimately, just like in the aircraft, the captain is responsible. In this case the Cargo Lion captain is the president.
Who in their right mind would purchase a DC10 with no firm contract? Which business when faced with recession does not cut back on costs by reducing staff. OK it may be nice and sentimental not to lay off a single employee but now everyone is laid off.
Cargo Lion had contract after contract with many airlines. Virtually all of them were lost due to short sighted maintenance leading to AOGs leading to loss of contracts.
Combine this with a commercial department that never left the office (until the last lot, who were too late to have a chance) and considered
PR a dirty word.
However the biggest problems were the "head in the sand synrome" and the "I know better than everyone else" syndrome. Well we all know the outcome of these management policies. On top of this was the presidents inability to fire employees for incompetence but this was probably in itself the final incompetence.