There are several questions which, as far as I can tell, have not been asked:
- This crew that had to get to St. Louis...was it the only crew in existence that could have staffed that flight?
- No crew available in St. Louis Area?
-No crew available in an area where flights to St. Louis weren’t booked, like Dallas, KC, Minneapolis, etc.
And if this was indeed the only set of four people on planet earth who could staff the flight:
- Why did they arrive so late to the flight, after the passengers had boarded
- Is last minute boarding by such crews standard policy
- Could they at least have called ahead, before they plane was boarded, to warn the crew they were on their way
- Was this the last UAL flight of the day
- Did any other airlines have flights going to St. Louis that day
Final question:
- Why has this never happened before. What unusual circumstance and screw up precipitated this situation.
This most probably has happened before (paying customers removed from a plan to make way for employees), and would have happened again, if not for David Dao making a scene.