Rainboe: Let me point out that he sat and considered what to do for many hours.
Exactly, and the best he could come up with to resolve the situation during that extended period of time, was to divert the aircraft and offload the purser in MIA? What situation? Using your own argument that the rest of the crew apparently only started talking bad about the captain after reaching chigago and
after signing up for the final leg to ORD. What intolerable
situation existed during the 6 hours to MIA that didn't exist on the 3 hour leg to ORD? The mere presence of the purser back in the cabin? Makes no sense. There doesn't seem to have been an actual ongoing problem or situation for the captain to resolve. It doesn't take four stripes to devine the captain's motivations here, doesn't take any IMHO. He was acting out retribution and punishing her, pure and simple.
As I have said, no way to run an airline.
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.
I agree. This will be a tricky one for UAL to resolve without sparking a civil war throughout the company, between the flight deck and cabin. Extended 'sick leave' and anger management counceling for the captain followed by some desk job in the training department, maybe some notional re-training for the purser would be my guess.