There should be a "circuit breaker" as part of CRM?
I have never flown co-pilot on anything. But I have certainly stopped a car and jumped out of the driver's seat when the passenger was giving me the irrits.
I concluded that I was sufficiently emotionally disturbed to be unsafe to continue driving.
I almost did it two more times before ditching that particular girlfriend!
My point would be that pilots don't have the luxury of pulling over and taking the bus home. Then again, drivers are not paid that much to drive their car (Michael Shumacher excepted...).
So my suggestion is that there should be a code-word in CRM: perhaps "Sterile Cockpit" that would be the signal to both pilots to instantly confine their remarks and gestures only to those necessary for conducting the flight.
Yes, I understand why the FO was suspended: he had a joint responsibility to stop the nonsense. What I do not understand is why they are proposing to allow the Captain to continue his career.
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be flown anywhere by a man who cannot control his emotional state sufficiently to keep the aircraft safe.
When I had a few in the pub and gave the Managing Director a free character assessment, my career in that company was over. No amount of "I am terribly sorry" or "I will ensure this never happens again" made any difference. My career was over! I did not have the right stuff to be making decisions at a senior level. They knew it, and I knew it. They did not sack me, I walked.
"Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree
than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect."
~Captain A. G. Lamplugh, London, 1930's