Speaking from a personal point of view, there were many aspects of this incident which were farcical to say the least.It was not only the jury that was flummoxed by the intricacys of the case..the judge halted the proceedings at the end of the second week, to ask 'excuse me, but where does the co-pilot sit?'.
There were also aspects imperitive to Captain Stewarts defence which were deemed to be unimportant and therefore were not mentioned-for example,the fact that the same defect with the autopilot had occured in the same aircraft previously.When Captain Stewart informed British Airways on landing that the autopilot had failed,the aircraft was in the air, unchecked, within hours.
British Airways did indeed offer Captain Stewart a position as a co-pilot after he was found guilty,strangely, of the charge of endangering people on the ground yet not guilty of endangering people in the air.Yet after paying his fine, a paltry sum, Captain Stewart did not accept their kind offer,as he did not believe he deserved demotion, though he did agree with the judges summing up that his reactions,when realising the autopilot was not funtionning correctly 'were a millisecond too slow'.
Captain Stewart took full responsibility for his crews actions as he was a proud and honourable man and it was his pride that made him take his life. He lived for flying, he lived for the camaraderie, he lived for the travel that flying afforded him. British Airways alone were not responsible for his death, neither was the CAA, the jury, the legal system, the judge,his defence team or the press,they all contributed equally.