Interesting parallel going on in Mainline at the moment. A skipper was suspended last week because he refused to accept an aircraft that he considered unsafe to fly. The Captain in question has without doubt behaved with unbelievable dignity throughout the whole sorry affair. It is also true to say that 99.9% of the pilots on the fleet back the balanced and difficult choice he had to make. The reason why this is interesting is because the manager in question was ex-regions and seems to have a history of this type of intimidation. I have a feeling that the mainline senior managers are not going to back this character having already issued a statement that they will back any Captain who makes the judgement call that an aircraft is not safe to fly. So if TDF is using this type of approach and is found to be wanting then I don't think he will get much backing from his bosses down at HQ.
Sad times for aviation. It will eventually lead to many people being killed, its as simple as that.