The three crashes they mention are the results of:
#1 Stupidity
You should read the CVR transcript of the Pinnacle Crash. It sounds like two teenagers who stole a car for a joyride. Actually, they were two "pilots" joyriding on a repo flight. Just plain dumb!
http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2005/Pinn...VR_Factual.pdf
#2 Poor Piloting, unprofesstional behavior, fatique, and FAA regs:
The Corporate Airlines pilots' failure to follow established procedures and properly conduct a nonprecision instrument approach at night in IMC, including their descent below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) before required visual cues were available (which continued unmoderated until the airplane struck the trees) and their failure to adhere to the established division of duties between the flying and nonflying (monitoring) pilot.
Contributing to the accident was the pilots' failure to make standard callouts and the current Federal Aviation Regulations that allow pilots to descend below the MDA into a region in which safe obstacle clearance is not assured based upon seeing only the airport approach lights. The pilots' unprofessional behavior during the flight and their fatigue likely contributed to their degraded performance.
#3 And the B1900 crash, misrigged elevator and being out of CG (even though the
crew had correctly calculated CG iaw FAA approved company policy):
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
the airplane's loss of pitch control during take-off. The loss of pitch control resulted from the incorrect rigging of the elevator system compounded by the airplane's aft center of gravity, which was substaintially aft of the certified aft limit.
Contributing to the cause of the accident were (1) Air Midwest's lack of oversight of the work being performed at the Huntington, West Virginia, maintenance station; (2) Air Midwest's maintenance procedures and documentation; (3) Air Midwest's weight and balance program at the time of the accident; (4) the Raytheon Aerospace quality assurance inspector's failure to detect the incorrect rigging of the elevator control system; (5) the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) average weight assumptions in its weight and balance program guidance at the time of the accident; and (6) the FAA's lack of oversight of Air Midwest's maintenance program and its weight and balance program.
As a result of this accident, the FAA assumed weights were increased.
It should be noted that the FAA (and its regulations) was listed as contributing factors in two of the three crashes.