It's hard to know the mind of a Captain that has at least 18 years of longevity on a late Saturday night terminator, a late departure, the hellacious goings-on with the Union v. Courts v. Mainline and the attendant drop in morale... throw into the mix exhausted crew behind him, a group of rowdy a-frames... who knows what workload he was actually under up there anyway. But what SHOULD have happened was exactly what Doug and FL270 (and the rest of you folks, for that matter) said, right on the money- if he was truly involved with what was up, I doubt the rest of what happened downstream would have.
I'm trying to spread the idea that preemptively I should have overcome the shock and did whatever it took to get him off. I failed to. I'm taking the blame here for not speaking up more, and it won't ever happen again.
It's a scenario that you really never think about. I was actually afraid of losing my cool and physically taking him off the plane rather roughly. Would you be? If so, you'd sit on your hands for a minute or two as well lest you take out some frustration and get yourself into serious, serious trouble. Sad fact: pilots can be the enemy (and I don't mean vs. CSAs, highspeed
). Remeber as well, I'm a probationary new-hire for the next... 7 months. All it would take is just a few SOBER Eagles fans to say I was rude, rough and unfair, and I'm out of a job. It was all part of the stress of the situation.
Thanks for the replies.