I flew many hours with the Captain on VC10's as part of the front end operating crew. He was a true professional and I would have no qualms flying with him captaining an aircraft with myself as a passenger in the future. Hopefully he will not get hung out to dry, and the Court Martial see sense and get him back flying in the future.
Many threads mention how lucky they were to get away with something, this captain was unlucky, the aircraft system design should have prevented this occurrence.
But I doubt Airbus recommend using the area around the side-stick as a parcel shelf . . .
Personally, I just wonder what this has cost. All the work done to try and find out why it happened, all the negative publicity, all the potential re-design plans.
The stick was pushed forward (apparently) and the aircraft pointed its nose down. Surely that IS the system design . . .
When I taught flight safety, I always said 'nice guys always get more opportunities to kill you than nasty bastards' . . . just a thought.