The crew's decision to escape from the hijacked Afghan airliner provoked condemnation yesterday on an international pilots' unofficial website.
For security reasons, airlines were discreet about how they train their pilots to deal with hijackers. But contributors to the "Professional Pilots Rumour Network", an informal chat-line with its own website, were blunt in their condemnation after the four-man crew escaped through a cockpit window at Stansted Airport.
"Isn't the captain supposed to go down with the ship? Or do we get paid to be trained for such situations for no real reason?" one asked.
"I can understand self-preservation kicking in, but I think they have a responsibility to the passengers which they seem to have forgotten about," said another.
Some suggested that established anti-hijack techniques should not be discussed because this played into the hands of the hijackers. But one contributor said of the Afghan pilots: "I cannot help feeling that this is on the face of it a gross dereliction of duty to his passengers and crew."
Mr Stewart Penney at the specialist magazine, Flight International, said: "It is difficult to work out what [the pilots'] motives were. They may have been taking the opportunity to escape or they may have seized the opportunity to prevent the plane taking off again."