One can never mention incompetence in the Bahamas.

Be kind to your web-footed friends. that duck may be somebody's mother.

This is no consolation for the families who experienced loss and I would guess there was no indemnity insurance either. So sad!

Even if the plane had coverage in place, once the investigation shows he was carrying 'for hire' and that the pilot was not qualified, that claim will get denied faster than you can blink. Insurance null and void.

Government should establish and maintain a website that lists all pilots licensed by our aviation authority to carry fare paying passengers. And no pilot without an IFR (instrument) rating should be licensed to carry fare paying passengers. The website should also indicate the type of plane the pilot is licensed to fly, e.g. single engine, multi-engine, etc. Similarly the government should maintain a website that lists by call-sign number and type of aircraft all aircraft holding a current airworthiness certificate and possessing the required minimum insurance coverage that are authorized by our aviation authority to carry fare paying passengers. We must recognize that we are a nation of islands with much air travel between our islands. Bahamians, residents and visitors alike should have the ability to verify for themselves (by going to such websites) whether the aircraft they will be flying in is airworthy and whether the pilot who will be flying it is properly licensed to do so. Without this kind of information being made available to the public at large, it is all too easy for the unsuspecting traveling public to be preyed on by unqualified pilots/hackers who offer ridiculously low prices to get from A to B. Of course, even with such publicly available information, nothing at the end of the day can stop a fool from getting on a plane that is either not certified as airworthy or is piloted by someone who does not hold a current license to fly it.

"The documents showed he had completed 129 flights between October 31, 2017 and 2018 for renumeration or hire". Tribune, are we to assume this should have read "between 31st October, 2017 and perhaps 17th January, 2018? This would cover approximately 79 days, an average approximately 1.63 flights per day. ATC had sufficient recorded data to have raised warning flags on the volume of activity of this pilot and aircraft. I would imagine the aircraft's maintenance provider would also have been aware of the volume of activity conducted by the aircraft and pilot. Another example of decades of the lack of good governance and decades of the lack of will to improve this situation which only rears its predictable head after every avoidable tragedy.

i think it fair to say, he is probably not the only incompetent one flying around the Bahamas. problem is we won't know who the others are until we read about them too one day in the papers.... apparently, mostly good weather and sunny days are covering up for many of these deficient individuals.

The crazy thing is that flying in The Bahamas is diverse in terms of weather as it changes rapidly.
Unless he's like Bahamas air and flying around clouds or storms, it's impossible to try to avoid those conditions in this airspace forever.

Call it like it is, he was incompetent and put people's lives at risk constantly to make a quick buck. Unfortunately this time didn't work out and people lost their lives unfortunately.

You have to be a pilot to understand how totally unacceptable any of this is, and just how grave the abuse of established principles. There is no modern airspace in the world, or rental company, or authority, which would allow anyone of that little professionalism to be PIC or allowed any form of control over a commercial aircraft. He was a criminal.

This guy had only had his PPL, was on an expired medical certificate, overloaded PAX, ignored ATC, and had even failed his IFR?

How on earth did he rent the plane?

Because he had enough money and the owner apparently didn't give a damm who he rented to!

Amazing that government requires annual notices be published/gazetted to identify persons licensed as engineers, realtors, public accountants, and on and on. Is there such a public notice requirement for persons licensed as pilots who are authorized to provide fare paying passenger / charter services? If such notice is published (at least annually), does it indicate whether the pilot is single or multi-engine certified? As mentioned in my post above, they should all have an IFR rating given the many unpredictable weather situations that may be encountered with little notice.

The difference is that the engineers and accountants, BREA etc. which do publish are non-government agencies. You are asking the government to actually do something. funny (but sad too) this is why the contractors bill will never work because they are asking government regulate which won't work. take taxis, jitneys, mailboats etc. as your prime example of lack of regulation or quasi regulation which is regulation and red tape in name only but is mostly under table antics in reality

not 100% accurate on the contractor part. The BCA wants some authority to regulate aswell and government isn't seemingly open to the idea. They know government sucks at regulating, which is why they wanted to certify through BCA programs.

Who owned the plane? Why isn’t he in jail right now?

Because we in da Bahamas and das how tings go here! Where you been?

I am still in utter amazement this could have even happened. A guy with only multi-engine PPL operates 129 "commercial" flights with 8 passengers in an Aztec, like he's a jitney driver. He loses control of it when he goes into a system, after refusing to answer ATC, and ends up 180 killing everyone on board.

Not answering ATC, just by itself, is enough to get serious disciplinary action, or an escort. The irresponsibility here is beyond comprehension. Offering commercial flights before even being instrument rated? WTF?

This is so serious it warrants actually shutting down regional airspace to light aircraft until licenses and rentals are checked (no professional pilot is going to complain considering the circumstances). Did nobody check the flight plan? Did flight services not check on landing? Did nobody ask for his license or log book? ATC didn't sanction him? How were these passengers "booking" these flights or hearing about them?

We need to thank our lucky stars the story hasn't spread wider. The fact this occurred in our airspace speaks volumes about how professionally-(mis)-managed it is.

> How were these passengers "booking"
> these flights or hearing about them?

you do not "book" these flights. you just go loiter in the airport and tell people you are going to andros, and they tell you where to go.

nowadays there is whatsapp and the thing goes by word of mouth.

sometimes there is an odd fella there asking you to bring a cooler of frozen meats for his parents.

Every single person who signed anything in that log book, or "checked" it, needs to be immediately fired and prosecuted. By the parents of the 8 year old girl, if they're still alive.

So what is his family going to say now??? ..... Not my good child????

Probably something to the effect of..."he was just trying to make a living..."

While breaking every law in the book...