United pilot removed from cockpit by force?

[JimNtexas]

A pilot who refused to fly his scheduled United Airlines flight to Israel was eventually removed from the cockpit ? with 300 passengers stuck on the plane for hours while airline officials scrambled to find another pilot.
...
Security personnel forcibly removed the pilot from the cockpit, and it was several hours before the airline could find a replacement pilot.

PilotNewsMag story

What, if anything, really happened?

 

[tomgoodman]

What, if anything, really happened?

Maybe he reached age 65 and refused to retire.

 

[Raoul Duke]

He was probably trying to figure out if it was hat on or hat off trip

 

[jonjuan]

Maybe he forgot his pledge pin and refused to fly without it.

 

[J.Otto]

He had a bad case of contractitis.

 

[Shrek]

If the airline was properly staffed it wouldn't have been a story.......sry can't jr pay your way out of Pt117 Count Chocula.

 

[ditchpilot]

Pilots did the right thing. The company knew long before that the crew would exceed duty day rules. They needed to get the relief crew in place and failed.

 

[Skippy]

we suck---- yay! this happens a numerous times a year and costs the company prop tens of millions---- but its so expensive to have 5 extra crews for such contingencies---- hey u wanna staff low-- u deal with it-- and united does accept this - just like they accept the less than 1% of diverts to to carrying less than 45 minutes of fuel---- its an acceptable risk of losing $

 

[eaglesview]

we suck---- yay! this happens a numerous times a year and costs the company prop tens of millions---- but its so expensive to have 5 extra crews for such contingencies---- hey u wanna staff low-- u deal with it-- and united does accept this - just like they accept the less than 1% of diverts to to carrying less than 45 minutes of fuel---- its an acceptable risk of losing $

If you're carrying less fuel than you want don't blame United....look in the mirror.

 

[Draginass]

Don't understand the removal from the cockpit by force. If I'm duty-day illegal, you'll find me already gone.