Did airline management have any input to the decision or did the captain go completely rogue. A scary thought indeed, a rogue captain full of his own self importance and seemingly oblivious of or indifferent to the impact his decision would have on others, in charge of a 767 hurtling through the air at 600 mph. Sure he has the right and the sole decision making authority when and where to divert the flight under his command, but he better have a damn good reason for doing so.
Well the Captain is getting a bad press (again). Let me point out that he sat and considered what to do for many hours. Whatever his thought process, he evidently decided it was not a safe operation to continue, and elected to land (safely) and 'remove' what he considered to be the problem. I'm looking for 'rogue' for someone who landed safely and continued safely? Evidently it worked for him because he continued
with the rest of the crew who were evidently confident enough in him to continue, until they apparently got to destination where they suddenly reconsidered their opinions and decided he apparently had to be slated. Very, very strange. By his action in recognising that it was probably not (for him and his own mind) a safe course of action to continue, one could say his decision was justified. It is not so cut and dried as to 'he had a mental blowout and should be, and has been dismissed'. I would be very surprised to find he has been dismissed. As I pointed out earlier, any employee may expect to be suspended
with pay whilst decisions are reviewed.
BOAC has chosen to publicise an irrelevant incident where a diversion was not available at 51N30W- exactly mid point between Newfoundland, Shannon, Keflavik and Santa Maria. This was completed supported by Flight Management following (yes)- a suspension. What are we to say about a captain who is under enforced early 'retirement' (without option) for a rather daft and bizarre action? I'd probably say 'Good decision making there mate! Perhaps 600mph decision making was 500mph too fast for you?' Strangely, things have never looked up better since! Don't come back.