Doubleu-Anker,
How ironic that you suggest that I am doing exactly the kind of thing I am admonishing others not to do in this (or any such instance)! No indeed Anker, I am not implying that. I am implying that others ought not to make such an assumption, as many probably may!
Having said that, African registered aircraft just like the MD-11 itself, have about the highest rate of crashing statistically. So being in an African registered aircraft that is also an MD-11, the odds definitely go up astronomically, despite the new paint job and the seasoned crew. But not something I would not have risked after being out of work for a year myself, as my resume was also in that pile. Though I was not current on the MD11 anymore and so that (fortunately for me in retrospect) put me out of the running.
In any case, it's too bad that America is in such decline that Americans have to go to work for a Zimbabwean company of all things (or any overseas company for that matter) in order to pay the bills back home. Once upon a time our ancestors emigrated to America to seek work and purpose, and now many of us have had to leave to do the same. We are a country in decline with a leader who bows too deeply to foreign princes and potentates, but I digress. Sad what has become of us, and of our glorious industry, where the likes of Juan Trippe are surely spinning in their graves.
Half of my old colleagues from the airline that we worked for (which went Chapter 7 in 2008), had to go overseas (me included) to find work. A few are flying multi-million dollar heavy MD-11's registered in the USA, for less $ than what an average waiter makes, just in order to "stay in the game". Many are still out of work. And now a few are dead.
In any case, all I wanted to do was to pre-empt the idle speculation of some of the inevitable self appointed experts and "top guns" that usually come out of the woodwork when a tragedy like this happens. All I wanted to say, whatever the result of the crash, that these were great guys, and great aviators. And, "there but for the grace of God" go the rest of us.