Your account of this incident is wonderful Brian and really should be published for a wider audience.
I remember this incident very well and I had flown with Capt Stewart a couple of times before. He was a lovely man, very pleasant and kind.
To be honest, some of the CRM issues here remind me of the Staines Trident crash. Things are no better nearly twenty years on from this near crash. I recently flew over India in Monsoon season on a 777, where the weather radar had completly failed 45 minutes after leaving SIN for LHR.
We should have gone back rather than risk putting the aircraft into a CB for so long. No advice from the airline was forthcoming, it was left to the Captain to make the decision whether to carry on or not. Once again the commercial impact of going back to SIN was no doubt in the minds of that Flight Crew, as that which persuaded Capt Stewart not to divert. Of course if we had of survived an encounter with a CB, it would have been tea and biscuits for them. It was a poor decision, but they got away with it.
Tim Luffingham is a Captain on the 747-400.