I was posting some FARs. They don’t seem to require the crew to stay aboard, therefore legally they were not “abandoning their duties”; at least not according to American flight regulations. Whether it was morally correct is not something we can judge.
In WWII, it was a prisoner of war’s “duty” to attempt to escape. If the captors would kill a prisoner for every one that escaped, would prisoners be wrong in shirking their duty to escape?
Also in WWII, civilians were killed in retaliation for partisan acts. Should the partisans have suspended their actions in order to save the civilians? Who’s the bad guy?
“What if” the flight crew stayed aboard the plane and the hijackers killed everyone anyway? The only ones in the position to evaluate a situation are the ones who are in the situation. In the judgement of the crew, escape was the reasonable and prudent response to their situation. Hindsight shows that this was the correct action for this hijacking.
It’s easy enough to say “what if” after the fact, but unless you are “walking in the other man’s shoes” there is know way for you to know what went on.
Neither you nor I can pretend to know all of the situation aboard the plane.
I made an educated guess, that relative to other hijackings we have heard of this one appear not to be particularly tense. The low probability of violence I mentioned was not relative to a normal flight, but to other hijackings.
As it turned out, the flight and cabin crew’s departure did not escalate the violence. It’s possible that the flight crew/cabin crew had carefully considered the effect of their leaving on the mindset of both the passengers and hijackers, and felt that by removing (or seriously complicating) the option to fly off to another destination, their actions might actually hasten the peaceful denouement of this particular crisis.
It’s possible they saw a chances to get their butts out of dangerous situation, and did so with reckless disregard for the well-being of the passengers.
I don’t know. You don’t know, either. It’s an interesting discussion, but I refuse to condemn the crew’s action without more information.
You can not even begin to hold the crew responsible for the hijackers killing that person.
How can you profect a moral judgement on someone else because of a criminal’s action?
If the flight crew escaped and then the hijackers killed everyone else aboard the plane because of them, they still bear ZERO responsibility. The hijackers are criminals. It is crazy to allow them to control whether or not someone is at fault for the deaths of any hostages. Only they are responsible.
Thanks for the FAR cite. I have not read them in detail since my IFR studies several years ago ::d&r from the FAA:: In particular, I could not recall if the FARs with respect to Pilot in Command definition & responsibility was different for part 135 ops.
I do recall on the NPR segment broadcast after the hijacking, the analysis that escape by the crew is also warranted if the hijackers plan to kill all the hostages. This of course is hard to determine a priori, but it is one of the possible outcomes of a hijacking scenario.
Oblio
::Off to read the FARs in case of being hijacked (or ramp checked) ::