When I was a copilot, it was common practice with many captains to only call them 'Sir' or 'Captain'. It passed out of being the norm in the 80s. If that is what he wishes, that is what he should be called- he is the captain of the 'ship'! If he wanted me to call him 'Bunny', 'Bunny' it would be.
What we have here is a resentful crew manufacturing enormous resentments and a few untruths. I would like an explanation how others can hear a phone call through a door inflight! sounds to me like their resentful behaviour drove a captain already suffering tensions to a mental state where continuation of the flight at that time was plainly unsafe. This leads to 2 queries:
1- why did he feel that with this crew, his safest option was to land?
2- why did they all feel they could happily continue afterwards?
If the captain was as disturbed as made out by BoF, I'm afraid I find the crew's decision to continue utterly bizarre- in fact, dare one say, as crazy as the condition they accuse the pilot of!
Understand, none of you come out of this well, BoF. Your job on that plane was to be an effective, co-operative crew to your flight deck crew. It seems to me your 'chips on shoulders' outweighed your usefulness. Your endorsement of his leadership by continuing shows bizarre judgement. Maybe a man in a fragile mental state was provoked into fury by a resentful, unco-operative crew. I have seen this sort of thing infrequently and as a co-pilot, I found it my duty to put a stop to it decisively so the captain was able to function at 100% for all our sakes! I've flown with some very difficult, notorious captains. Sometimes it's hard to do your job effectively, but just get on with the job, do as you are told, and you do the right thing for the passengers. Its not your place to provoke, but to co-operate. I have seen the most extraordinary cabin crew behaviour at times like this, it seems with some personalities, a near state of war can develop across the flight deck door, and it so desperately needs someone to put a stop to it. Ask yourself, rather than provoking the situation, did everybody do what they could to calm it, to deflate the situation. Nothing would have stopped all of you going to see your management afterwards. But instead the situation was elevated to crisis point. It takes 2 sides to do that! Both sides here appear to have preferred going to crisis rather than climbing down. Wherever has the CRM gone in your outfit? CRM does not just mean 'the flight deck must not ask us for anything when we are busy!' as so many cabin crew seem to think! You had a duty to be an effective crew to your captain, believe it or not. Everything I see in this incident reads like a bunch of resentful, vengeful teenagers. It does not come across well.
All it would have taken was to give him his bloody GenDecs! I find it very sad he is the only one apparently to go! You're so convinced you are all so innocent, yet I read this as you all provoked him to this situation, and you cannot see that. Maybe he was in an elevated mental frame of mind, but undoubtedly, your behaviour moved him even higher rather than deflated it.
Truly, the hysteria level on that crew was such that none of you should have continued. To United's shame, they let you. But what a disgraceful saga for all of you! Can't you see that?
Last edited by Rainboe; 29th Nov 2009 at 09:22.