People who live in glass houses..........
Did he F
up? Yes
Is he the 1st person to ever screw up? No
Will he be the last one? Sure as hell no
People do gear up landings, have prop strikes, leave nose or wing lockers open, leave fuel caps off etc. (even the ones who say "id never do anything that stupid") despite the thousands of times we have been told since day one "check this, always do that, these checks, those checks." It only takes you to miss something one time and the other holes in the cheese to line up and something like this can happen, no matter how thorough and professional you are.
He was doing the right thing by his company by being there at 1:30 am (dark - no apron lights) in the pissing down rain moving the aircraft becuase some of the "locals" were causing trouble at the airport.
If you can honestly say that you have NEVER, once in you flying career done something stupid not realising, then thought afterwards "oops that could have ended badly" then you are either lying or too stupid to realise. It just so happens that this one did end badly. Aircraft are insured and no one was hurt. Cut the guy some slack.
Im sure he feels bad enough and is having a hard enough time dealing with it as it is. Surely he doesn't need to be slandered and second guessed in an annoymous forum by people who don't know the circumstances and should be able to if at least not understand then sympathise rather than bag the sh%t out of him. Its easy to bag somone from the saftey of anonimity but be careful, it could be you next.
