What if the CMD dies of natural causes during a flight
Picture this:
The F/O is HK based did not get a decent sleep for the last two nights and is completely stressed out. (Ie Divorce or what ever)
They have a technical problem in route (What ever) which stresses an elder CMD out, to the extent that he passes away as did a continental CMD recently.
Now you have a possibly low time experienced and completely fatigued / stressed out F/O in charge of a plane with a technical problem.
Lets hope he has plenty of fuel or the weather is gin clear in HK.
(Yes I know its silly example)
What I'm trying to say is. We should be fully rested & crewed not only for normal run of the mill days but rather for days when things go wrong. This is when our grey matter is really required & why passengers on CX pay top dollar for tickets. If we are not going to do this then we are playing with fire.
We also fly airbus through the ITCZ like AF447 so lets have some Res man power under our belts.
If there were pilots in Aussie able to fly on that said day then the CAD should have insisted on that rather than issue a Dispensation.
Thus I think it is worthy of an appeal.