Quest Diagnostics - NTSB Factual Report - KTE
 

Quest Diagnostics - where "Safety is secondary to the company mission..."

Check out the 'Additional Information' section of the report. I've never seen one as long and comprehensive as this one...about 5 pages on the company flight department's background and the management therein:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?...09LA469&rpt=fa

Here is the NTSB docket with substantiating information...interesting to read the former director of training's statements (his position was 'eliminated' for refusing to lie for the Director of Logistics), records of conversation, and the air safety reports:

CD List Of Contents

An Associated Press news article on the above crash and NTSB findings:

Pilots' Claims In Crash Files Dog Med Test Company : NPR

I had wondered about the CO2 building in the cabin....apparently O2 was impossible to reach from the pilot seat, and it was medical O2, not aviators breathing oxygen. Now
confusion sets in, you reach up to retard the throttles, and cage both engines by grabbing the propeller controls which, if you haven't flown the type, are to the left of the throttles. The throttles are in the center of the quadrant on the BE-58 as with most Beech twins.

That all sounds crazy. CO2 or CO impairment does not seem very far-fetched in light of the apparently bizarre pilot performance.

Add in fatigue, stress imposed by management, lack of training in the specific aircraft type, and you have a recipe for disaster.

The crime here is that the company has known about this type of reckless flight department management philsophy for over 4 years now, and as a Part 91 operator, it really is upon them to clean up their own act.

Obviously, they have not, will not, and safety is still secondary to the company mission.

Wow... Just... wow.

There are some really great quotes in there. Particularly love the part where they ask pilots questions and get expletives or laughter back.

How NOT to run a flight department!!!!!!!

It crashed with both props feathered. I wonder what technique the co-pilot was using to "get the power back?"

Reminds me a now defunct pt 135 outfit I worked for in Northern AK. After their fourth Fatal in as many years they were shut down by the feds. Go figure. I worked there for three months and finally woke up one morning packed my bag and left.

It's a horrible thing to find out that your working for an outfit like that in a job market like this.

Yea, it is. The thing is, if they're operating under Pt 91, I don't think the Feds can "shut them down" They can issue civil penalties for certain things, maybe lift a ticket or 2, but other than that...???

Now the insurance companies, they're another matter. They can shut them down, for sure.