No problem at all with the scenario you've quoted, especially if there was no complaint. The core issue is that people know what they're getting into, and who is responsible.
I guess the assumption is that there's a degree of detachment between a paying customer and the operator, and the authorities take the view that the paying public need to be protected by the AOC structures (quality management, ops manuals, SOPs etc). If it's non-paying I guess the attitude is that you make your own choices.
Edited
I had another thought on this one. When I've done charity flights in the past, the Letter of Authorisation from the CAA obliged me to tell the punter that this was a private flight conducted to different standards than public transport work. It seems to me that the flights you are talking about here out to have the same requirement, but since no authorisation is required, there is no opportunity to impose such an obligation.
Having said that, no one ever asked any follow up questions so I think the subtleties are lost on the general public.
Last edited by puntosaurus; 25th Jul 2005 at 07:43.