A few more facts have emerged overnight on the updated Daily Mail website which I don't believe were published in last week's tribunal coverage:- (
Flybe pilots sacked after one called the other 'his bitch' before mid-flight bust-up | Mail Online)
The Mail says the reason CVR evidence was not used was because the recording of the row on the way to Spain was apparently wiped automatically on the return flight to Devon.(Was there no way to preserve this - assuming either pilot had wished to?....And should not a recording have been preserved anyway if - as alleged - both pilots were "yelling at each other" and, as was later stated, there was a potential safety issue?
The Mail says:- "Captain Bird had been on sick leave for seven months and on anti-depressants after a messy divorce, said Mr Akers." (It isn't clear from that quote whether Mr Akers was alleging the Captain Bird was on anti-depressants
at the time of the flight - but if he was, could there be parallels with the case of Captain Clayton Osbon - the JetBlue pilot who was forcibly excluded from his flight deck after bizarre behaviour back in March this year? JetBlue described that incident as a "medical situation".)