With the greatest respect and compassion to the families of those we lost - I'm not sure its tasteless, but rather an examination of some salient facts. Yes tasteless and baseless speculation happens, that's life but what do we take from this?
The discussion in Australia of this incident, at least amongst the golfing fraternity, aside from the tragic loss of some globetrotting soul mates, was the implication for remote golf?
Barnbougle is accessible from Melbourne with Qantas, and once there, you have a whole state to go and play in afterward - its all very vanilla. King Island on the other hand, is just golf and sheep and only accessible via small charter aircraft.. So there were from the start, always questions about the financial viability given the cost of getting there and then the lack of other entertainment and tourism options once golf was done.
Safety was never part of that discussion at the start, but sadly, now it is, and so as the saying goes, we must deal with the world as we find it, not as we would wish it to be.
I'm no aviator, so I haven't the faintest idea whether small planes are bad or not, but we have all seen "Rainman" and "Qantas never crashed" and so alas this cannot but place doubt in the minds of those timid souls who were thinking of going, but now may not. I was among them, but I'm booking a friggin ticket.
Remote golf works in the US, because its a big country, but you have lots of people. Australia is as big as the US, but with less than the population of Texas so the economics are a bit different
Your remote golf is inland, so driving is always an option. King Island is..... an island, so getting there is tricky. There is a ship, but its only weekly, and even then, its 100 miles across Bass Straight which are the some of the biggest, wildest and most dangerous seas on the planet - just ask the 5 boats that sank and the 6 sailors who died during the 98 Sydney-Hobart yacht race.
Good on them for having a go - so rather than mourn the lost, lets celebrate that they lived well and had adventures. Beats dying in bed any day.