from the perils of independant thought & decision makers of the real world
Your argument doesn't stack up. To be clear, I don't think this should have gone to court either but...... Someone made a decision that a Pacific Blue aircraft wouldn't take off with less than 30 mins until ECT so that the aircraft could use that 30mins to visually circuit and land if an engine was lost. They sat around a table and decided that to mitigate the risks of high terrain in Queenstown they would put that rule in place. That is a real world decision on running an airline. The Captain was aware of it. Do you suggest that all company SOP's go out the window and it's left solely to the Captain to decide where and when he/ she flys? Or just some of the SOP's be adhered to? Maybe the top ten most restrictive SOP's should be adhered to and it's up to the Captain whether they follow the others?
This should have been dealt with differently but your rant about " real world decision makers" is rubbish. The company made decisions about the risk it wanted it's aircraft and passengers exposed to.....is that not a legitimate decision?