Sorry to disappoint you, but it was engineering management that got the ear-bashing. From what I can make out, it was a totally un-necessary incident. The person involved does tend to let rip and then suffer the consequences, when diplomacy would have been the better option. You may consider PM to be autocratic, but I have known far worse bosses from the 'world's favourite airline.' As for Qatar - I made the biggest mistake of my life by joining the Qatar Emiri Air Force as a civilian supervisor back in the 80s. Got well and truly conned on that one, and only managed to escape after a year! By the sounds of it, things haven't changed!