I doubt ES has any influence, he wasn't exactly the most popular man in BA when he was there. The interview process isn't intended to work out who can fly a 744, it's there to work out who will fit in with the BA culture and be able to operate effectively with other BA staff from all departments. It is by no means perfect, but it does weed out the extreme and the unusual characters. Sometimes perfectly good guys fall foul of the process, but thats exactly the same as any other job interview process anywhere else in the world. The question of flying BA cargo is irrelevant as GSS is a separate company (though it shouldn't be IMHO) and cargo doesn't answer back.