Mmmmmm............ Not necessarily true. He could even feel relieved!!!
I'm fairly confident he's not the first Airline pilot to go through a divorce!
When I was going through my divorce I was offered time off, maybe it was felt that I wouldn't have my mind on the job and perhaps be a danger as a result ?
I requested that I be allowed to continue as normal, my life at the time was collapsing around me, and the flying was the one stable thing that I knew I had control of, could achieve, and was the only 'normal' thing still available to me at the time. Had my flying been taken away from me as well, I may well have tipped over the edge, it was truly a life-saver.
( mind you, had I come across the one-time colleague who was the cause of my distress, in some back alley in Calcutta one dark night - it could have been another story !! - history now.)