Christy, I'm not trying to defend Thai Orient, Udom or Thai DCA but lets get the facts straight.
In one well-known incident, a scheduled 747 flight was delayed by the Flight Engineer because the landing pilot had overheated the brakes
Rather than tolerate the delay, the pilot physically removed the flight
engineer’s bags from the aircraft and departed – with passengers – but
without the Flight Engineer. The incident was widely known and was
documented by the Flight Engineer. The DCA took no action.
The flight originated in Phuket and it was a L1011 with an ex Cathay flight engineer pilot convert in command. The rest of the story is fact. No action was taken by DCA but the pilot is no longer employed by Thai Orient.