Apollo 4
I cannot help but add my agreement with your thoughts.
FMQ CESSNA 441 4410109 1979
LBA CESSNA 441 4410042 1978
LBC CESSNA 441 4410236 1982
LBX CESSNA 441 4410091 1979
LBY CESSNA 441 4410023 1978
LBZ CESSNA 441 4410038 1978
A clunker by any other name is still a clunker.
These aircraft were beyond their economic life by the early nineties.
That they are still around is as much a testament to their robust manufacture, the failure of the their users to understand the "duty of care" in regard to their use as is the ability of the operator to communicate it.
It's all about the lowest common denominator.
The recent recommendations by the Coroner after the inquest into the so called King Air "Ghost flight" in regard to the use of these types, seems to have gone serenely unnoticed, at least until the next one.
Whether the aircraft are maintained within an inch of their life, or not, is beside the point.
They were already operating on the "profit edge" in the early eighties and the revenue then was not all that much different than it is now? And I'm not talking relative dollars here.
Most were in the early nineties already approaching 15 -20,000 hours.
If it were "economic" in these terms QF would still be operating B747-100s.
The City Of Bunbury a B747-200 was retired to Longreach with not all that many hours more than some of these types and certainly was the same vintage. The B747 is an "industrial" grade machine, designed for heavy commercial use, Conquests and King Airs are not
I would also be surprised if the "checkers" "checker" and so on up the line, had any thing but the merest acquaintance with a "factory" or "Flight Safety" rating.
"Myth" and "tales" and "this is how it really works", gets piled on top of each other. The regulator does not have anyone who knows better and the whole thing becomes a self fulfilling fantasy.
Nothing to do with lack of individual professionalism, just the way the system has evolved.
Dancing with the man who danced with the girl who danced with the Prince of Wales is hardly the same as dancing with him personally.
Stan can spew all he likes, fingers can be pointed until the cows come home and the 'should have' scenarios can be scenarioed ad nauseum, but until they get their fleet into the 21st Century and deal with the Damoclean "duty of care" hanging over their and any others using these types, heads there will be, if we are lucky, only "incidents" such as these.
How much more "luck" are we going to get?
Or is there to be yet another inquest, the legal buzzards are already sharpening their claws.