Calling for managers and CAA officers to take responsibility in this matter is on a real test: Look at Switzerland and the two Crossair accident investigations. The CEO (M. Suter) COO (A.Dosé) and the head of the Swiss FOCA (A. Auer) are officially indicted (of negligent killing, I believe). The attorney general is leading the investigation. Allthough I bet they will walk away unaffected, it is one of the first trials taking in not only pilots. The preliminary enquiry showed quite clearly, that by exercising his legal authority, this particular captain would have not flow, beeing fatigued, and would certainly not have busted the minimum. The accident would have most probably been avoided, however this captain would have been in a lot of trouble. Like so many other airlines, Crossair was notorious in hidden threats to pilots if they wouldn’t break every sensible rule to guarantee operations. Many testimonies now pop up to confirm this, as immunity is certain because all three suspects are no more in charge. To stand up and defend safety and legal barriers, it requires character and airmanship. If such was demonstrated, these airlines wouldn’t have hired the respective pilot in the first place (THAT’S the catch Kaptin M!). The problem starts with recruitement and training, very much a management and CAA thing. However, talent and character mean having alternatives to make reasonable money and training means money again and there you touch the nerve of business: It tends to hire the less gifted, but cheap and to train him only to serve the company. Controlling THAT is what CAA’s have been installed for and they fail miserably, mostly deliberately. Asking captains nowadays to stand down, refuse and exerce their legal authoritiy is about as realistic in many companies as to tell a Chinese or Iraqi to stand up and speak out loud for human rights and democracy. You can probably only accept or leave, but hardly change a well installed and almost corrupt system.