Mercenary Pilot, l guess you`ve cornered the issue. l suspect that l`ll regret this - how can l defend the indefensible ?
lt seems to me that it would be unlikely to have both a new captain and a new f/o trying to make a name for themselves.
Trying to keep their jobs - only my supposition - seems most likely to me.
Most of us have been lucky enough to have had proper direction in training via chief pilot/ops director normality. What those guys had is, l believe, still a mystery.
Six dead with an open airfield available, at whatever imagined cost of a diversion, is a heavy price to pay for a regular quick profit in my supposition.
l stress that is my supposition.
Nothing else, for me, fits.