Ashling,
I rather suspect that common sense is applied and the whole approach is looked at and environmental factors are taken into account as per SOP.
Lest we forget the whole point of the thread, the argument is about whether or not the powers that be used some of that common sense judgement you suggest they should in the particular case of the Captain concerned...
What we know from the thread suggests they didn't and they made a crass judgement based on some flight data, an arbitrarily chosen "gate" and a hidden agenda...
Even if they didn't its a good topic for debate.
I suggest, with one eye on the New View of Human Error, that engendering a feeling amongst flightdeck crew that there is a possibility of flight data being used against you in an unreasonable fashion is creating systemic organizational dissonance...
I just hope that those who defend the SOP in this particular case with such unrestrained vigour never rail at the institutional stupidity that clobbers them with a fixed penalty for doing 61 in a 60...
