Back to the good old witchcraft days eh.
Burn em at the stake, if they survive then they are witches, if they don't then they weren't.
Sounds like the sort of logic, Air NZ/SQ would use.
I'm sure SQ weren't all that happy with his appointment anyway, as they knew he knew up to what they were.
I reckon he did a pretty good job of defending the indefensible and hanging in there as long as he did.
It must have taken great courage in the few weeks after he started, had a good look at the books, found he was staring into an abyss and not to run... run very fast.