For those who hate this new policy, just how do you expect passengers would be reacting now, in this new reality, when they saw one of us coming out of the flight deck and leaving our partner locked in there on their own? They are going to be thinking the worst, it's just human nature, and our airlines (and the Minister's office) would be inundated with complaints.
Yes this new rule is inconvenient, no one is denying that, but as Left Coaster has so eloquently put it, we need to change the conversation. Pilots are human too and that means among us can be people who are quietly fighting a difficult battle. I know of at least one airline pilot in this country who took their own life in the past year. It was tragic for his family but fortunately for all of us he didn't choose to do the deed at work, where he could have done exactly the same thing as was done this week in France.