I for one, am truly appalled by the punishment of said crew.
This was not a "stunt". it was a straight and level fly by on a non revenue flight over a field also used to this kind of flying. No preparation also doesn't cut it, since this Captain was not new to the phenomenon of both fly-by's and delivery flights.
I think it is really saddening to see one person who did something he has been doing times before- and probably gave most of his life to a company to end up in that function anyway- being kicked off the cliff like this.
If now nobody sticks up for him it means either:
- Cathay pilots are a bunch of egoistic sons of b!tches, or
- The 49ers method was so bloody effective nobody even dares to speak up.
Whichever it might be, it is a sign of the times I suppose. Airline flying has become more boring than anything imaginable, and airline (middle) managers are getting way to powerful.