PBY
Or how many 'Stress Newtons' would the passenger have needed before totally flipping and as a strong athletic chap, becoming a total flight saftey hazard in the cockpit.
There are some issues that need seperating here. Pablo is making a stand against idiotic security rules that unreasonably affect Flight Crew doing their day to day job, and I applaud him for that. Then there is the issue of him breaking SOP's in what can definitely be described as a Standard Situation. I am amazed as to how many people are sucked in by his charismatic nature. With all due respect to the self confessed SLF on here, your comments are wholly inappropriate. Being a nice guy is sadly not the only criteria for being good at your job, and those of you commenting have absolutely no idea of Pablo's job profficieny.
Now at risk of repeating myself just to try and make this whole situation really clear.
He will get lots of publicity which he will love, It sets him up for his next book and soon you will see him on Sky presenting another series on Aviation disasters. The tribunal should in theory be un-winnable on his part.
SOP stands for 'Standard Operating Procedure', note the term 'Standard'. If it is a requirement to operate to SOP's then that is that, however if a Captain finds himself in a 'non-standard situation' then he or she can use all resources available to come up with a decision that they believe will offer the safest outcome. I do not see how it can be argued that the footballers requirement to go on the flightdeck was a 'non-standard situation', more like an opportunity for a bit of networking by Pablo (he would just love those footballers parties!).
All the references to Col Bud Holland on the B52 are 100% valid. He was a rule breaker, nobody stopped him and just came out with terms like ' Oh I know but hey that's Bud you know', he was a maverick and thought himself to be above the rest. Not only did he kill the crew but four families had to grow up without their 'Dad".
Norman is on the money, so everyone please take note of what he says. The crash he had in the Tornado was pilot error. Now I know Pablo well, and nice and charismatic he is. But Gulf war hero.. No. Fantastic pilot ...No. There is a lot more and like Norman I will stay nap, there is enough of what he got up to in the Prune archives. However I also know the navigator of the Jet that Pablo flew into the ground, I worked with him for two years. Had it not been for RW, both he and Pablo would have been dead. I flew over the crash site 30 minutes or so after the event and it was clearly a very close call, with one chute being perhaps only 50 meters from the first impact of the aircraft. RW suffered for a long time after as a result of what was really flying misconduct.
I am glad he is raising a public view to the idiotic security measures faced by everyone, but as for all the other waxing lyrical about the guy on here, please stop it. He is charismatic, that's it, and a lot of people on this thread have been sucked in by that.
Some FOs would feel under unbearable pressure with PMs style of 'leadership'. Remember Jakob Van Zanten.
It seems funny that many people who do not know him think him a great aviator and Captain and many that do have a somewhat different opinion.
Pablo will take all these comments on this forum in his stride as that is his nature, and I feel uncomfortable about public discussion of someone, but he is now in the public domain and that is what he likes. Good luck to him but please stop saying he is a great Captain and Aviator when you have no idea.