Perhaps if Auburn was searched, nothing would have happened on FedEx flight 705, but he wasn’t. He was ultimately “trusted” and was allowed to board as a deadhead passenger on the FedEx flight.
He thought he was going to be fired for lying on his hours, so he wanted to make sure his family got a $2.5 million insurance policy that would be paid by FedEx if he died in an accident.
And because he was trusted, he boarded with a guitar case.
Inside were a few hammers, and a spear gun.
He intended to kill them with hammers and use the spear gun as last resort. He wanted to make sure their autopsy remained consistent with an airliner accident (blunt force trauma) so the hammers were ideal to him. Auburn boarded before the crew did and switched off the flight recorder on the engineer's panel.
The flight engineer noticed it and switched it back on right before take-off.
15 minutes after take off, Auburn stormed the cockpit
His plan failed, but he still beat the crew badly -- they fought back and eventually pinned him down, this was due to the Captain rolling the aircraft left to right to throw Auburns balance off.
It initially worked, but Auburn began beating the crew again, the Captain ended up rolling the aircraft upside down and pointed the nose straight down.
This maneuver is what actually stopped Auburn and the Captain who was half conscious and couldn’t feel half of his body was able to recover the aircraft from the dive.
Everyone survived, but unfortunately the pilots were not able to fly anymore having suffered severe brain damage.
Had Auburn not been trusted, this would have never happened.
This isn’t an industry where you can assume anything. Nothing can be assumed. You treat everyone, EVERY TIME, like they may be concealing something.
We learn from the past — I am hopeful searches remain consistent.
History proves in aviation, if you assume it’ll be “all right,” then blood will follow.