Thats odd. I never lost quintane in single player. He complained about a buckling hull a lot but he never actually died.
I managed to die once on my first time through. I got vaporised on the Tekagi mission. The second time I went through I lost all my equipment including one wing, all my guns and all my lanuchers. I took ages to finish it with one level 6 gun... I think that was the only time I died in single player unmodded.
In modded in rebalance I died when theres a crusier blocking the jumpgate (I'm being deliberatly vague here). I got massacred by it and yet managed to through the fleet battle shortly after with barely a scratch...
"I'm not a Corsair, I just spend my time taking work from them"
Child of the Hispania-
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1404122