Just sad...
The Captain was 48 years old and his date of hire with the operator was July 10, 1995. He had flown for several commuter airlines, and previous to UPS was furloughed from US Airways. A search of FAA records indicated that he had no accidents, incidents, or violations in aviation and no record of any investigations pending.
The First Officer was 38 years old and was hired by the operator on June 20, 2006. He had been previously employed by Chautauqua Airlines.
A search of FAA records indicated that he had no accidents, incidents, or violations in aviation and no record of any investigations pending.
[...]
The cargo identified on scene included clothing, machined parts and subassemblies, flashlights, gun parts, costume jewellery, cases for electronic equipment, USB flash drives, un-populated circuit boards, espresso makers, automotive entertainment and navigation systems, bike frames, pellets for injection moulding, wrist watch components, rubber bracelets, cell phones, MP3 and MP4 players, mannequin heads, wigs, shoes. No items posing a flammable fuel load or capable of acting as an ignition source were visually identified except for batteries and battery containing devices.
2 pilots dead, 747 toast, all because of some ****ty consumer goods out of Hong Kong that should have been declared as hazardous. Complete waste.
How much more will it take to realize Li and Li-ion are inherently dangerous - and even more so when being pumped out of countries who could give a damn about safety or reliability.