And/or decided to remove the “R-“ and SOE along with renewing the CFI in one trip to the FSDO.
But the record doesn't show either of those things happening, does it? Looks like the restrictions are still there.
I know, but I was pointing out that the corporate release wasn't giving me warm fuzzies, and sounds like damage control - which they absolutely should do, but still leaves one wondering if a crew pairing mistake was made.
At some point, there's only so much you can do. Being on the line since last April, chances are the FO had several hundred hours in type. The Captain flying a desk and picking up the flight "to maintain currency" means that he was likely the less proficient of the two pilots, but having worked there since 2007 he probably had oodles of time in type.
I was in a similar situation, flying a desk most of the time with occasional days where I got to fly for real, but there was nothing stopping me from flying unrestricted with a 100-hour FO. And of course, it was possible to have a 100-hour captain and a 100-hour FO. At some point, you can make things so "safe" that scheduling becomes impossible.
I had to assert command authority on exactly one (minor) decision once, I had an FO give me the controls after a go-around in some very challenging conditions once, and I had to get myself reassigned as PIC due to conditions being below green-captain requirements when I was doing the first OE flight with a brand new captain once. I did not ever have to grab controls away from someone because they made a mistake. The expectation was that once you were in the plane you could fly the plane, and we hired accordingly.
Re flying a desk, I know that after about 3 weeks of not flying, I'd be slower than I liked. Luckily, it was pretty rare for me to go that long. I wonder when the last time the captain flew was...