Well, in future, I guess any crew using more than idle reverse can refer to this incident in his/her paperwork, and that should be enough justification. I find it bizarre, having lived under flight paths all my life, that some punters sleep in a swinging electorate, can be allowed to compromise the decision process of any crew in a critical stage of flight!
As for this incident, I found it strange, as a ground staff member, to see all chutes deployed at the gate, but if the QF ops manual, as quoted, is company policy, then good on him/her for doing exactly what they are trained to do! Litigation is just such a wonderful thing, at least the crew should be able to defend their actions.
As for the faulty chute, I'd put money on someone's
too expensive to leave on the aircraft shoes for this.
