Guys, I was there, so let me post a few facts. . .
1. Captain did not object to removing shoes, he questioned whether he was required to remove them in view of the passengers. This was taken by the airport authorities as being refusal to comply with security instructions. His objection had nothing to do with floor cleanliness.
2. He and F/O were thus taken into adjacent room. Airport Manager and QF security notified. Captain subsequently agreed to remove shoes at normal walk through screening point in view of passengers.
3. Flight departed 22 mins late, not 70 mins late as reported by media. 15 mins of the 22 min delay was due to late arrival of inbound service, so only 7 mins of the delay is attributable to the incident.
4. Best part of all . . . . the directive from NAIA Management for crew to remove shoes had been repealed the previous day.
The crew were not required to remove their shoes in the first place.
Confirmed by Qantas Security.
And for
Stiffwing, regardless of what any of us think of the Captain in question, I think that having to change hotel rooms 5 times due to construction noise prior to a 2 crew night sector would have made anyone "testy".