Originally Posted by
IAHB756
Those test pilots had seniority numbers. I agree the pilots over 60 should have been gone but I’d rather have test pilots on the list than not. Today, at the merged airline we adopted the UAL practice of having a large test pilot group that is not on the seniority list. Not sure how that happened pre merger as the UAL MEC was pretty tough. Maybe it was the bankruptcy that forced this practice? It certainly is not manpower positive (like FO instructors) yet here we are, today living with it.
They were ALL over sixty and should have been released on 9/12 before ONE active pilot was furloughed. They were not because they were special friends of Fred Abbott. There were guys who were almost eighty still on the list, that's what a joke it was at the time.