Without knowing the particulars of each case, it is hard to know why some were hired and some were not, but I do know some generalities.

1. Unless they are very desperate for pilots, employers don't like hiring furloughees because they don't want to spend money training someone just to see them disappear six months later. It takes about a year to recoup training costs at Eagle and probably the same at other airlines.

2. Unless the airline has their head up their ass (so do, but I doubt Eagle is one of them) every pilot who shows up for an interview is qualified for the job. Interviews usually do two things; they verify that the pilot accurately told their qualifications on their application and they want to see if the applicant would make a good employee. From a pilot perspective, the person is evaluated as someone they'd want to spend four days in a cockpit and from a manager perspective, they want to see if the person has a good attitude as an employee.

The tough thing about interviews is it's a one shot deal. If you or any of the interviewers is having a bad day, has a slight personality conflict/misunderstanding, that could be enough for them to reject the applicant. My brother is in the financial management business when he's interviewed for jobs it takes 3-5 visits before he finds out if he got the job or not. With us, it's one visit.

Sometimes there is a personality difference between the applicant and the company. It doesn't mean that the applicant is a bad person or wrong, just that their personality isn't as good a fit with company culture as another applicant's personality.