Harsh as though this post may come off, I hope you will come to see the best thing for you to do is not to make an emotional decision. Take some time to allow the emotions to cool. Only then should you think about your next steps…
Before you go doing anything drastic, take a deep breath. And another one. And another one. The report is published and you cannot change it. Nothing good comes from you “highlight[ing] and fill[ing] in the holes that [you] see in this report.” Doing so could put you further away from obtaining a job, if ever.
It doesn’t matter what the aircraft manufacturer did or did not do, nor does it matter how long emergency services took to come to you. Highlighting those concerns to a recruiter is the type of deflection I was talking about in my earlier post. It is hard to provide specific advice without reading the report, but this is the ultimate example of being the pilot in command - whatever happens, it is on your shoulders and no one else’s. It’s not cruel or unusual for this to be pointed out. An old Chief Pilot of mine used to say “if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen”, and this applies at all PICs: if you cannot handle that you will be named as one of if not the responsible party in almost all accidents and incidents, this is not the industry for you. And I say that in a generalized sense, not directly at you as a person.
You will feel absolutely gutted, and for a long time. Remember that a report doesn’t care about our feelings. It is meant to look at the accident from an outside perspective. You say you feel you’ll be viewed as unsafe or incompetent, but the only way that happens is if you don’t look at your own actions first and take responsibility for your part in it. As such, there is one, and only one, question you have to answer: Did you as the operating pilot make a mistake? It doesn’t matter if what follows was a 1 in a million situation or that you only had 17 seconds to handle the emergency, or even if your mistake contributed to the accident. Did you make a mistake? Could you have been more current? Could you have known the system better? Contributing factors are just that: contributing. How did you contribute to the accident?
By your own admission you did make a mistake - you accidentally bypassed an emergency system. An accident can be an error. It could be negligent. But it’s not always wilful negligence. That’s a whole different ballgame. You didn’t mean to do it, and that carries a lot of weight in an interview. As you say, you were not found guilty of wilful actions. That doesn’t change the outcome of the accident, but accepting the responsibility can change the outcome of how you are viewed by recruiters, especially if you describe the actions you took to avoid a similar situation in the future without placing the blame on others (even if there is blame to go around).
As I said in my previous post, there will be companies who refuse to look at your application. It may take longer for you to get hired, possibly longer than you may be comfortable with. Accepting the responsibility without deflection or deference and coming up with corrective actions for yourself is how you will get hired in the future. Failure to do that will mean that you have wasted your time and money.