For the record, I did not criticize the operating crew. Rather, I was having a shot at Virgin's "planning" and the fact that the organisation took the easiest decision of all. As some of the nay-sayers will have read after having made their rather hysterical, vitriolic and insulting posts, there were several options that could have been sucessfully implemented. It's not rocket science.
Challenges such as that presented to DJ the other day are normally outside the scope of VBAs/LCCs so it ought not come as a great surprise that they screw up when so confronted. Would Qantas have offloaded SLF in like manner or would they have had a variety of strategies in place to solve the dilemma?