Chances are, for his utter lack of competance in designing a ship that doesn't die so easily, he was forced to train and then fly in one, combat status. If my theory is correct, there are two possible outcomes:
1) he's not just dead, he's super dead.
2) he's the only known kilrathi who knew how to survive in a dralthi, and, as such, was challenged by someone out of jealousy and died in a duel, and is thus still dead.
3) (secret possibility) it was designed by a non-kilrathi (such as a Varni) in an attempt to sabotage the Kilrathi's war effort . . much like the malfunctioning torpedos in Action Stations. Of course, obviously having been caught in designing such a poor ship, was quickly given a dishonorable death (such as dissintigration . . or possibly being hunted and eaten as a prey beast) and is thus somewhere in between dead and super dead.
Sorry for the stupidity of that . . . too much frustration over my stupid modem.