Earlier last year my family was unfortunately dealt the card of having to deal with losing loved ones in a plane crash. For those who may remember, it happened in Montana and involved two sky divers, two instructors, and a pilot. All died including my cousin Jenny and her fiance Kyle, the skydivers. For months we wondered what the cause of the crash was. The plane took off, departed right turn out, turned back towards the airport for an unknown reason, and down it went. After many months of waiting on the NTSB, we recently found out that an oil cap was not in place and the engine seized shortly after takeoff.
Its the little things that make or break. Pilots, when doing your preflights, keep your eyes out for the small things. Be diligent in your checks to protect yourself and your crew. This applies for ground teams as well. When doing your vehicle inspections, don't ignore that low tire pressure or that burnt out light. Get it fixed before you leave base because that deer doesn't care what your pressure is at when it jumps out on the road and you lose traction and hit it. It seems like obvious stuff and you may be thinking "well, duh". But if it was that obvious and so hard to miss my cousins would have come back from that flight.
Semper Vigilans
You are so right. The margin between a successful flight and a tragedy can be razor thin. I've seen too many "simple" things kill and injure way too many pilots over the years, including CAP aircrews I had to clean up after. The devil is in the details!
Thanks for passing that on. Its so easy to run through a pre flight.