I personally try to learn as much as possible from these sometimes heated discussions after an accident has taken place... They are a valuable tool to any pilot, whether the content is agreed upon or not. So far a lot of interresting points have been brought up from which I can learn or re-remember my training regarding night flying... I'm sure a few can say that as well.
The debate against single/twin engine and single/multi crew will go on for ever until the laws are changed and enforced. Unfortunately, we as pilots often don't have the choice to decide. Sure we can say no to certain flights, but as in this case for example
(which might have happened), when someone knocks on your door late at night and asks you to go fetch a heart urgently before it and/or the recipient dies, what are you going to say??? I can only do it in the twin... But lets say the twin is down, not fueled, or parked in the back of the hangar and it will take an hour to get it airborne...and the perfectly good old 206 is parked in front, fueled and ready to go... 9 out of 10... if not 10 out of 10 of us, who all have done these flights before in a singles and on our own (with out the added rush of loss of life pressure) would say lets go.....
A quick look at the accident history over the last few years doesn't exclude twins flying multi crew from CFIT, but given the choice of a personal flight I'm sure we would all like to take the nice new twin with auto pilot/land against the trusty old single parked in the hangar.... but, do we always have the choice when we work...? Don't we wish......
