without knowing the fuel state and so on I'd have thought the proper decision would be to find a runway with a smaller crosswind component. At my airline everyone would be too worried about covering their arse to continue a landing like this. The decision making process would be governed by the phrase: "what would the lawyers say?" landing outside manufacturers limits (demonstrated or otherwise). Also, our FOs are only allowed to land in 2/3 of the max demonstated crosswind (max demonstrated being 35 knots, so FO limit is 23). Whilst I admire yer mauns ability, I think that he probably made a poor decision to land there in the first place. Was it commercial pressure or some sort of bravado that lead to that decision?