"He had the option to walk away but soldiered on, I’ll bet in ignorant bliss."
He was tasked to do a job, why should he have "walked away" from that task?
Under the rules that pertained and with the information supplied to him at the time he was perfectly legal. Does anyone imagine if he had breached any rules CAsA would not have prosecuted?
It always seems to me to be a a "double Standard" that he was persecuted by CAsA for what appears to be the same "Offence" committed by the aircrews in the Mildura event, yet those crew received no sanction whatsoever.
Why? because they broke no rules.
The two events are remarkably similar, weather related events where crew have found themselves with un-forecast conditions and no backdoor. They were not the first, and unfortunately won't be the last.
The real crime in my opinion is the authorities an the operator's desperate attempts to deflect any examination of their own failings by manipulating reports to do so. There were many valuable safety lessons that could have been learnt it is sad that they were swept aside.