Runway 23
Agree, no-one wants to besmirch the crew here, the accumulation of negative strikes that day left little hope for them, nor would anyone else have had much chance after brake release I reckon. The trouble is that once you start ignoring certain regulations, you can develop the infamous “I am exempt” mindset and are inclined to end up ignoring more and more rules and regs. Whether or not this attitude is common in one or more airlines could be debated elsewhere, but it won’t do anyone any good to witter on about it.
I stronglybelieve this type of discussion is greatly beneficial to us all and might just save a life or two one day, when a crew is faced with the sort of pre-take-off decision that Caption Marty‘s faced that day. Maybe they were in a situation where use of the other runway would have meant going back for more fuel ? Commercial pressure ? slots ? weather ? VIPs on board ? Plenty of us have been there …