Australians are known for their assertiveness or Jack is as good as his Master approach. 737 crew on IMC descent to a Pacific island where limitation was not below 8000 until inside 20 DME of destination VOR.. At 20 DME further descent to 4000 is available prior to instrument approach.
Captain was a former 1942 US Navy World War Two veteran of the Guadalcanal campaign with a no nonsense uncompromising attitude to first officers. A classic one man band personality. The first officer was a quietly spoken Australian Vietnam war veteran who had been shot down in Vietnam and survived after ejecting .
The captain set 4000 into the MCP instead of the 8000 limit which was the MSA until 20 DME. Descent commenced from 35,000 towards destination VOR.
First Officer politely reminded the captain of the necessity of levelling at 8000 until inside 20 DME and went to reset the MCP to 8000. The captain bridled at this advice and rudely told the F/O to pull his head in. Approaching 8000 on descent, it was apparent the captain was intent on continuing below 8000 in IMC and still outside 20 DME. Reason for 20 DME limitation was high terrain en-route and on track. The F/O stated his objection to the limitation being ignored and in turn was again told to pull his head in. The F/O then unstrapped and grabbing the crash axe from its holder in the flight deck, raised it above the head of the captain and coldly stated "Your choice, Joe - 4000 or 8000 on the MCP..
Faced with this threat and calling upon his Threat and Error Management skills, the captain levelled the 737 at 8000 and neither said a word after that.
A good example of multi-crew cooperation backed up by an axe. You won't read about that in the manuals