RE: Starting Bench Safety Issues
There's nothing I like about those benches. If you try to sit on the sides, they tip over. There's no good place to put anything, and some planes don't fit well. Large planes don't fit at all. People run their engines on them for breakin and leave oil all over them. I prefer to work on the ground.
Having said that... the benches had nothing to do with the incidents described.
Dave Olson