Originally Posted by
fastair
if there was a charge that the crew could have filled (even if UA didn't file them as a company) I would have. I am 98% sure there was at least a single charge out there that could have been pressed by the crew, even if it was obscure and had little penalty.
The crew has no standing to press charges. If two idiots hit each other that's their deal to press charges against each other. In any case the DC police aren't going to do anything about an event outside of their jurisdiction. I'm surprised the FBI didn't show up, but I guess they can just flag these guys as denied for future Visas to the US.
It is a judgement call on whether to return the flight...sometimes people judge well, sometimes poorly. Based on the outcome, I believe the crew as a whole judged wrong here to return the flight...
On the other hand, the new norm of when to return seems to be "if the rest of the sheep are too panic'ed to continued". UA should bill the fuel to the mass media for years of stoking everyone's fears over every minor anomaly that happens in the air.