Serious question: if this thing kills so many pilots, even experienced ones working for the military... why is it still being manufactured, sold, and flown?
If you're a pilot you've heard about the MU-2 and its flight characteristics, The aircraft requires specific training that once implemented drastically reduced the crash statistics. This pilot made an incredibly stupid decision, flying an aircraft with no real flight time (11.5 is nothing) and he paid for his hubris with his life.
Edit: here's an article on the MU-2 that does a good job to talking about the issue with the aircraft from a pilots perspective without assuming too much flight knowledge on the reader's part: http://www.flyingmag.com/safety/training/dangerous-airplanes...
One loud statement is this:
The fact that lack of training is the primary cause of the high MU-2 accident rate is supported by other data. In Europe, where the equivalent of a type rating is required to fly an MU-2, the accident rate is less than half the rate in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_MU-2#Safety_Concerns
Perhaps because of its safety record, used planes are very cheap for the performance - in some cases half the price of other aircraft of the same age, top speed, number of passengers, and engine configuration [2].
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_MU-2 [2] http://www.anacondaaviation.com/techpages/PDF/1I.BROCHURES%2...