I wonder what the old BOAC Captains, if there are any still out there, would have made out of this brouhaha?
In the midst of it all, I feel that we have not heard the Captain's story.
You don't make it to Captain in an organisation like UA by being a "bozo", as one unkind poster labelled this chap.
I find it hard to conceive of the fact that he would willingly divert his aircraft unless there was some major breakdown in crew relations.
As a mere PPL and sometime SFL on the larger stuff all I can say is that I tend to trust the people in the pointy end of those big jet things. I am very discriminating about what airlines I will fly with though.
With all due respect to the cabin crew (most of whom do an excellent job) I have yet not to reach my destination through the fault of a captain or his flying crew. I have though witnessed rudeness and intransigence from the folks in the back. Thinking back on just two examples I witnessed (one on a UA flight), I can easily conceive of why a Captain might divert to turf the cabin crew member off.