"I have questions for one about whether it's right that the directors, or whoever, the board, should pay themselves large sums when businesses can go down the tubes like that," he said. "You need to have some system by which tour operators properly insure themselves against this kind of eventuality." Thomas Cook was brought down by a ($A3.1 billion) debt pile, built up by a series of ill-fated deals, that hobbled its response to nimble online rivals. It had to sell three million holidays a year just to cover interest payments.