Ayroplain -- you might want to read the sentence that immediately follows the one you've quoted. Firing whistleblowers who express concerns about airline safety; publicly threatening to dismiss others who do likewise; attempting to use the courts to silence those who speak out about safety matters (a tactic that is illegal in most of the United States -- see, e.g., the California SLAPP statute) -- these are not typically the ways of persuading a jury that one's airline has a robust safety culture in place. Nor, to my knowledge, are they methods previously employed by the chief executives of British Airways, Air France, or the other airline you mentioned.
Last edited by Blind Squirrel; 16th Aug 2013 at 10:23.