most lawyers and surgeons act on their clients behalf and with their consent i.e. they ask the untrained client before removing a leg or deciding upon a defense strategy.
Yes, they do, but would you give advice to a surgeon actually
operating on your leg on how to do it, if you had only rudimentary medical knowledge? Would you stand up in court to override your defense counsel if you didn't understand the case?
At the very least you must concede that this was not a good marketing/
PR move by BA. Surely as a pilot (the smiling professional face of the airline) you must be part of the drive to keep hold of business in an increasingly cut-throat marketplace.
I don't think the pilots dealing with this problem on BA268 had "good marketing/
PR" as their first priority when dealing with this situation. I take on board that you were worried when the engine surge happened. (Incidentally, probably one of the more spectacular ways of an engine going outside it's normal operating parameters. A run-down, cowling fire or even a seizure can go by unnoticed in the cabin whereas a 30ft trail of fire and bangs rarely does.
)
After the incident, when all the safety considerations had been reviewed and the flight 'put back on an even keel', then there would be time for a more detailed explanation to the passengers as to what happened and why a particular course of action was being followed. If you as a passenger on this flight felt kept in the dark in this respect, then that is a valid complaint and I'm sure that the crew and the airline would like to know so they can do better in this respect in the future.
I would still say that with the facts as they are known at the moment, the crew did a good job in terms of a SAFE operation to get the passengers as near to their final destination as possible...