‘Pal, all this talk of sharp knives, back-stabbing and friends sticking together……
It is significant that this character tendered his resignation of his own freewill a few days before the Chief Pilot was fired and ultimately his resignation was accepted.
Nobody forced him to resign so who stabbed him in the back; his employer in accepting the resignation; his ex-colleagues, whether individually or collectively, in assuming that someone who resigns actually wants to leave?
Maybe he didn’t really want to leave at all; maybe the allegation that his resignation was just a tactic in a callous bid to usurp the CP is correct. If so he was simply hoist by his own petard. How unbelievably stupid that would be. Would his Mummy never have taught him the consequences of playing with fire?