PPL Hobbyist. I would have to disagree that he stole, or was involved in "stealing" the aircraft, as after all he did have control of the aircraft when his colleague went to the toilet. It's all about interpretation.
Perhaps the charge of "abuse by position and authority" but from the details and small amounts of "facts" that are available, if true, it doesn't look like he endangered his passengers by doing anything harmful - I could be proved wrong at a later date.
I'm not sticking up for the bloke in question - far from it. What he did, if true, was wrong, and completely ridiculous, but the media have, not for the first time, jumped in at the deep end with some stupid headlines. No wonder aviation gets a bad name... We're all jumping down this fellas throat with wild thoughts, opinions and views but we probably know 10% of the facts. Or is everything black and white? 99.9% of people on here probably disagree but who gives a
