Many congratulations to Capt Burkill for regaining his old position at BA. No doubt it was a very distressful period for both him and his family which they can now hopefully put behind them and I wish them well. Also, well done to BA for doing the right thing in this instance.
I hope both parties have learnt some lessons from this episode. I know some here are blaming BA for not nipping the whispering campaign in the bud. They certainly can't be blamed for allowing Peter to take VR as that was his prerogative, even if ill advised - what counsel was given to him by BALPA?
Did BALPA make strong protestations at the time to BA regarding stemming these false rumours? If not, why not? I can't help but think this issue got caught up in both union and management politics, but could BALPA have pushed the issue harder?
With regards to the other airlines not recruiting Capt Burkill I agree that it was unfair, but understandable. The public's perception of an airlines safety is paramount and a risk/reward calculation was made. If another incident ever happened (however unlikely) there would be a lot of uncomfortable questions raised. Nobody wanted to stick their neck out, so this should serve as a warning for anybody stuck with a similar curse.