I have debated with myself as to reply to this topic or not, however as a colleague of mine has been named I feel pressed to.
I have had the privilege to fly with and be a friend of Simon's for some time now. He has been an exemplary Pilot and Captain for many years.
As a Captain he has been supportive to first officers, and the cabin crew have great respect and affection for him.
Now, in the press as we know journalists will often put spin on a story to fit the story they want to tell.
Lets look at this case, I understand the flight was from MIA to LHR, we don't have standby pilots in the US so Simon could have come from anywhere, JFK,EWR? or even min rest?
Crew often turn up to the stand in the US due to security checks, often we are spread out as each is searched. Sometimes no beep sometimes you end up getting stripped off. Heh ho, but there is a natural stagger.
Now the actual incident itself, for the passenger in question to have been barred by Simon, he must have been obviously disruptive. We DON'T offload passengers willy nilly in Vs, there is always a valid reason for doing so, the IFS and Duty Manager are also involved, as is the other pilot.
So there are checks and balances in place.Our concerns are Always the safety of the crew passengers and aircraft.
The class he was travelling? irrelevant. safety first.
Overpaid Captain? Hardly despite the recent Pay deal we are still amongst the lowest paid long haul drivers in the industry.
Virgin backing down? Hardly again, he would have been given the opportunity to calm down and travel later.
I feel extremely lucky to fly with some of the most professional pilots around, which is why Simon is probably at home ignoring the rants of the quite frankly ill informed.