The real problem is the hypocrisy of the event. It was essentially gloated by most if not all of the managers including NR himself. Even though the little boy in each of us was saying "really cool flyby" the mature seasoned pilot was saying "it went too far".
So the dilemma begins...armed with indisputable evidence, the entire aviation community was able to judge for themselves and the verdict came in against the perpetrator.
It really doesn't matter who did it. Good guy, bad guy, manager or not. It was deemed to be of poor judgment.
So, does CX remove him from his position and send him to the line for a period of time? What about that judgment part which was deemed to be poor? Should he then not be demoted to F/O like the Captain of the JFK incident? Is there reason to retain a pilot that may be demoted who is already on extension and would this not set precedence for F/O's who may want to be extended.
No, the easiest solution is termination and that is always a sad time for many when a colleague is terminated...regardless of the situation.
Like any accident investigation, there are always several factors that create the setting for the incident. Previous flyby's and discussions of better ones all had a part in this incident and no one along the way ever said enough is enough this is going too far! Well, now the entire aviation community has said it and CX has mud on thier face.
