"Operational matters affecting flight safety are the sole responsibility of the AOC holder; it would be completely improper and a total conflict of interest if the ticket seller were to intervene in operational matters such as deciding whether a particular flight should or should not be conducted in the prevailing weather conditions."
Sillert....
It was a general statement where it would be prudent for a responsible "ticket seller" to agree on operational parameters where they are happy for the AOC operator to cancel the flight on the grounds of safety. Which should have happened on this occasion - commander knew the forecast was for deterioration and still elected to continue beyond what was considered normal for the type of aircraft operated..... The bit you don't know is what commercial pressures the a/c operator may have been under to commercially operate the aircraft for contractual purposes....
My point was that the AOC operator has full and total operational control over the aircraft - when charterer / operator are two different parties!
It would still have been wise for agreement when to knock it off and let the storm roll through! Im not advocating in any way that a 3rd party interferes with a regulatory mechanism that exists for the safe operation of public transport aircraft!