Thanks Meagan, I knew of all of that but there was also dissension amongst management about whether the authorisation should have been issued.
What wasn’t ever realised is how BEA pilots had been conditioned not to trust management. I took redress of grievance against my fleet manger and won it. It was never actioned although I had my leave and my flying instructors course maliciously cancelled. Later a captain warned me he had been asked to falsify a voyage report to sack me.
A fact that can be verified happened to a very close friend of mine who had gone crew fatigue after a very trying winter rotation when the captain after a long discussion decided to throw the towel in and nightstop in Scandinavia during winter. He alleged that he was asked to make a false report; not long afterwards the flight manager at a management/ union meeting came out publicly with a slanderous tirade which ended after a civil case in which the captain was awarded damages BUT said manager kept his job.
As you have written ..we all make mistakes and some decisions we would not have made in hindsight; I’ve certainly endangered aircraft but got away with it; I’ve also argued with captains and reluctantly acquiesced when I should have walked off the flight deck.
Glen did what he thought was best for the company but was in a position he made the wrong decision; he was then hung out to dry.
The prosecution was wrong; as was said to me on a mountain in Achill by two fellow paraglider pilots who knew nothing of me; the authority is staffed by would be failed airline pilots (expletives deleted). I crashed on my first solo as said gentleman had not taught me what to do if I bounced.
We can mention the double standards which include the landing on trim fuel, the LAX engine failure and the subsequent 11 hour flight which took the aircraft out of its certification criteria and led to a mayday; and aerotoxic syndrome.
It would be nice if there was a group including a company psychologist and psychiatrist as SR had which could offer support I had but pigs might fly (some do apparently).