You should do a little research. For starters they dumped one pension on the PBGC. There was no plural. All other pension were kept. The one pension dumped on the PBGC was the pilot plan. The PBGC received a substantial stock grant in the reorganized Delta in the assumption of that plan. It turned out the PBGC basically made money on the deal and in fact had to pay pensions well above their normal max to Delta pilots because of that recovery. In addition you seem to have no idea that the PBGC is essentially a private insurance company not funded by the tax payers. It is funded by insurance premiums.
As far as your buddy who retired in 97 it's sad you consider him a friend when he is a flat out liar. He would have been 67 to 68 when the plan was terminated. They took at best a 200 to 300 dollar a month hit and if he was 68 probably nothing. They also received compensation in a claim sale.