Hey Baron
That is an EXCELLENT post
The #1 way for a pilot to kill himself and his pax is STILL to fly a perfectly serviceable aircraft into the ground - Lockhart River, Benalla, Mt Hotham, Bathurst, Lake Liddell to name a few.
Somewhere along the way a pilot has made an error of judgement or an error of perception, and it wasn't the aircraft's age at fault.
Human error continues to cause 70-80% of accidents in aviation
Of interest in the Airtex ruling was the admission by several pilots that although they felt pressure to not make entries on the MR, they make the entries
without the feared repercussions.
On many occasions, Pilots have had to demonstrate great skill to get themselves out of a scrape - but often that scrape is of their own making.
If you feel your company is pressuring you to do the wrong thing, get your pilot group together over a beer and look each other in the eye and
promise each other to stand your ground. The AFAP would do well to encourage this but it is a forlorn hope
Go out and buy Tony Kern's book
Flight Discipline, read it, and then ask yourself if you're a true professional. If not... step up to the mark.