I was a rampie at CAL's hub in Houston for about ten years so I might be able to add some light (and hopefully not much heat) to the discussion...
High power run ups were regularly conducted on the gate at IAH. Ground crews stopped traffic behind the AC & ground to cockpit communications were maintained. Since the prohibition on high power run ups was airport specific, and contained in a maintenance manual
not available to the crew, it does not seem appropriate to condemn the crew for running up at the gate, when it would have been normal for them to do so back at the hub.
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The event committee consisted of the airlines rep, a pilot union rep and an ex airline pilot for that airline( the FAA inspector), I think thats just a little one sided don't you?...
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The FAA guy was ex-TI, not CAL. I knew of one ex-TI guy who
hated CAL and everyone associated with it. He was a recruiter for ExpressJet, having CAL experience on your resume was a sure fire way to get not hired. So no, it may well
not have been very one sided at all.
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it would be nice to at least have the truth which I think the family of that chap deserve...
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He failed to remain clear of the danger zone.
And the flight crew did not push him.
Everything else in the whole chain of events might have been done differently... deplane the pax, MX tow the ship to a runup area, have a mechanic at the controls, with the proper pages from the CAL Manual referred to... but when the procedure calls for the thrust levers to be advanced, but if you step into the danger zone, the result is going to be the same tragedy.
