Could anyone with actual knowledge of UAL SOP's (no you don't need to identify yourself as an employee...you can claim you gleaned this knowledge from your friend) shed some light on what a pic is allowed to do in an emergency like this, according to company policies? I'm not the biggest fanboy of aviation regulators, but usually they include a provision like "In an emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot-in-command may deviate from any rule" (quoting the FAA). And I think any operator will have similar provisions. Am i naive? Would company regulations make her actions questionable? This was a non-standard situation, even an emergency, and imho the pic did everything right, from what i know. Please don't tell me according to some rule she made a mistake?