Yes, “They screwed themselves” is a pun, but I honestly did not mean it that way.
I meant that I think they screwed themselves legally and professionally because they chose a story for which there is no excuse for a professional pilot.
Plenty of excuses, but not much opportunity for 2nd chances once an 'ooops' gets publicized this broadly. Most 'ooops' don't get this much publicity.
The reality is that even though these guys made a serious mistake, no one was injured and no one was really in any danger of being injured.
In some ways, I feel bad for the pilots.
“I meant that I think they screwed themselves legally and professionally because they chose a story for which there is no excuse for a professional pilot.”
Well, call me a Phillistine (with 25k+ hrs), but perhaps the best thing they could have done was tell the truth. IMHO the laptop story is bogus. Back when laptops were “legal”, I never heard of a problem with them, and I used them a lot. Nah, it ain’t laptop use that got these guys in trouble. ATC? Possibly, but only peripherally. Not that ATC won’t try to hang you for their own mistakes. I can count on two hands the number of times they tried to violate us. They always got hung when the tapes were reviewed. ATC already knows what their level of culpability is, if any. In this case it may actually be publicized.
As to the crew....well, they screwed up. Since I was only an unwashed Boeing driver, I can only go by my own experience. If my rapidly failing neurons can be trusted, the Boeing makes all sorts of unpleasant noises when you reach a top of descent point and don’t descend. Understand that the “Eurotrash” may have very different ideas about how to handle this indiscretion, as well as what is to be done when you reach an end of route point (MSP), at cruise altitude and speed.
Suffice to say that a Boeing would tend to get “noisy” well before reaching MSP if it was still boring along at cruise altitude. Any A320/Boeing drivers (there are many), that can compare and contrast the reactions of the FMS and Airbus equivalent in an aircraft that has not been allowed to descend from a calculated Top Of Descent point?
It would be an interesting comparison, and in the case of the Airbus, quite applicable.
It would be nice if folks just told the truth. It would make things so much simpler for everyone.