You’re not comprehending what I’ve written, das. Please read this again, twice:
[What I would do] would depend on the safety implications of the circumstances. If there’s been a swapping of seats by agreement between passengers, there’s no W&B risk and we know that being in the allocated seat for post-accident identification purposes is a furphy. Did old mate make it clear that he wasn’t going to comply with any directions of any crew in any circumstances? Lots of responsible people refuse to do patently stupid things but otherwise comply.
But I get it: With all the strict liability offences in the rules, the hapless minions called crew aren’t allowed to assess the safety implications and de-escalation options. As soon as there was a refusal to comply, it had to be escalated and the only option was to insist on compliance and to call in the police when there was a failure to comply. Otherwise, the hapless minions called crew commit their own strict liability offence for failure to comply with the ops manual. It’s ‘safety’ through imposition of strict liability on everyone for failure to strictly comply with the rules. No room for any application of any wisdom, here.
I get it das: You interpret your Ops Manual as holy aviation writ, giving you and your crew ZERO options to exercise ANY judgment or apply ANY wisdom because that would be – prepare to genuflect – a strict liability offence for failure to comply with the Ops Manual. I get it.
But there’s a reason for that old saying about rules being for the guidance of wise people and strict adherence of fools. I get the impression that you don’t understand the reason.
I’ll give you a very simple example, to try again to get the point across. It’s a strict liability offence not to declare a MAYDAY if I realise I’m going to land with less than 30 minutes of final reserve fuel. Am I going to comply that rule when I can see the circuit area of the quiet little country aerodrome in G at which I’m about to land 2 minutes into that fuel? No. You can call the police to taser and arrest me after landing, but I’m not declaring a MAYDAY. (And before the usual suspects launch breathlessly into the ‘but what if’s’ about aircraft blocking the runway or having to go around or whatever, I’ll apply my judgment to those circumstances if they arise. You might be having a conniption about my outrageous flouting of the rules and be itching to get me tasered, but we’re different. That’s my point. The different perspectives are obvious throughout this thread.)
Lookleft: My brother is long and happily retired from a successful career, exercising judgment and applying wisdom to complex problems – including dealing with passenger issues – over decades at the front end of heavy metal. Passengers tasered: Nil.