Calebra, if you find the plane analogy wrong, the other one is the cliche about the captain going down with his ship.
It's a poorly understood requirement in that it was never expected that the captain in the face of catyclism would sacrifice himself as a matter of course. The idea was that the captain of a vessel would remain responsible until the point where the vessel became irretrievably unseaworthy. Until that point, the duties were to the passengers for their safe keeping beyond his well being, despite peril.
Once the captain declared himself to be unable to be in charge of a vessel because it was unseaworthy in his estimation he was not only free to save himself but also obligated to sound general alarm, and get out so that he could make general account in hopes of avoiding future calamity.
I'm not convinced Gerry is up to this.