Deadstick wrote:
FBO owners should be held more directly responsible for who they rent
aircraft to. I think we will find that the aircraft dispatch
procedures were NOT adequate. Proper dispatch procedures might have
prevented this particular tragedy.

Who would do this examination, and on what basis? Would you like a
psych evaluation every time you decided to rent an aircraft?

Unfortunately, the insurance company will end up paying for the FBOs
negligence and nobody will have learned anything.

I sympathize, but I have to wonder what there is to learn here.

The problem is that even if we made FBOs responsible for assessing the
renter's mental state, we still wouldn't know anything because the
people doing the assessing aren't qualified to make any such assessment.

I know most agree that we are our brother's (and sister's) keeper. And
in a perfect world, where understanding was easy to come by, I would
agree with you. But this is not a perfect world. Your idea of
institutionalizing this in to policy made by the courts is abhorrent to
most people.

Some accidents are simply impossible to prevent. You can't prevent a
person from leaping off of a tall bridge to their death. And likewise,
a pilot with suicidal tendencies can be very hard to identify. This is
the exception you're using to make policy. You need a real big spanking
with a clue bat.

Jake Brodsky