I don't think the pilots of this aircraft had malice. It was a completely jacked up situation. The holes of the cheese aligned and people lost their lives and a plane was destroyed (along with all of the personal devastation that comes with such an event).
It's the same crap that causes mishaps whether you are a civilian, contractor, or military. Complacent folks who get behind a situation and/or aircraft and end up in the side of a mountain or water. This particular event is news because it's attached to Blackwater.
I've read equally tragic or worse military mishaps. Military pilots are better trained than civilians (IMO), but our aircraft will fall out of the sky just the same.
"Holes in the cheese" ?.......... my fricken arse! These guys bored their own holes big time, and they paid for it, big time.
Unfortunately, unlike a single-piloted-aircraft, these criminals – yes criminals – killed both themselves and their innocent passengers. And their company was no help, and perhaps – no, likely - set them up to fail.
Most everyone of my vintage - although our aircraft used to fall out of the sky, routinely - has never put even a minor, self-inflicted dent in their aircraft, much less killed passengers through their own stupidity and incompetence. And they have flown in the most horrendous conditions from heavy combat to incredible weather, pitching decks, hellish terrain, etc. Many, no most all of us who have over four decades of incident/accident free flight, even though most all have pushed or even broken the rules with calculation, remained among the living because of our uncommon training, our strict command, and our own personal integrity and professionalism. Indeed, many have incredible and well deserved chest candy for what they have accomplished, flying and surviving on or beyond the edge, and living to tell about it.
In summary, the Safety Board concludes:
• The flight crew flew a nonstandard route into a box canyon and did not take remedial action in a timely manner.
• The flight crew did not use supplemental oxygen as required by Federal regulations for the altitudes at which the flight was operating.
• The operator did not provide sufficient oversight of and guidance to it its flight crews.
• The operator did not ensure that operations in Afghanistan were conducted in compliance with Part 135 regulations.
• The operator’s dispatch procedures were inadequate in that they did not ensure that specific routes of flight were defined and flown.
• The operator did not adequately mitigate the limited communications capability at some remote sites.
• The operator’s flight-locating procedures were inadequate in that they did not consistently track flight arrivals at each remote location in a timely manner
• Once the airplane was identified as missing, the coordination of the search and rescue effort was flawed, and radar data of the airplane’s last known position were not provided to searchers in a timely manner.
• The FAA did not provide adequate oversight of the Part 135 operations in Afghanistan.
• The DoD did not provide adequate oversight of the contract carrier’s operations in Afghanistan that was consistent with the safety provisions of the DoD’s contract with Presidential Airways and the regulations in 32 CFR Part 861.
• If the passenger had received timely medical assistance, followed by appropriate surgical intervention, he most likely would have survived.
PROBABLE CAUSE
The captain’s inappropriate decision to fly a nonstandard route and his failure to maintain adequate terrain clearance, which resulted in the inflight collision with mountainous terrain. Factors were the operator’s failure to require its flight crews to file and to fly a defined route of flight, the operator’s failure to ensure that the flight crews adhered to company policies and FAA and DoD Federal safety regulations, and the lack of in-country oversight by the FAA and the DoD of the operator. Contributing to the death of one of the passengers was the operator’s lack of flight-locating procedures and its failure to adequately mitigate the limited communications capability at remote sites.
I have no sympathy for these derelict pilots whose incompetence killed others, nor their company for their slipshod if not legally negligent operations.
As I said.......
Swiss cheese hole alignment, my fricken arse! :icon_rage
