Originally Posted by
GUWonder
That is a misunderstanding of the situation, no less so when an airline is on the receiving end of federal money under one of a variety of programs.
When there is the situation of "unlawful authority" or an unlawful exercise of "authority", absolute authority only exists if the party exercising authority has sovereign immunity that is applicable in practice. The crew in this situation lacks absolute authority as it certainly doesn't have sovereign immunity.
No. First of all it's the PIC and only the PIC, not the crew. Also, being prosecuted later, or not, doesn't weaken the authority on the spot.
In fact, "resisting the arrest" is a punishable offense regardless on whether one is guilty or not.