AA Manager loses it over 3 minute delay by Mx

saxman

Well-Known Member

I'm usually one to defend airline on time departures to keep the operation going, but this we're leaving early no matter what is getting pretty ridiculous as you can see in the video. As far as I'm concerned, the brakes don't drop until, I, the PIC has an airworthy aircraft as agreed upon by the crew, Mx, and dispatch. Not some middle manager that flips his lid over 3 minutes. I jumpseat and ride on quite often, and I see them close the door early on standby's just to get the flight out early. I know the AA mechanics are in heated negotiations, and I back them 100%. If something is not right on the aircraft it needs to be documented, negotiations or not. Right before I left my previous regional, we got a few memos to watch out about leaving without taking care of even minor discrepancies. In other words, we were almost too focused on leaving on time. I have to admit, I appreciated that one.

I'm not sure if the manager was the mechanics boss and I hope the guy taking the video doesn't get fired for going public.
 

I'm usually one to defend airline on time departures to keep the operation going, but this we're leaving early no matter what is getting pretty ridiculous as you can see in the video. As far as I'm concerned, the brakes don't drop until, I, the PIC has an airworthy aircraft as agreed upon by the crew, Mx, and dispatch. Not some middle manager that flips his lid over 3 minutes. I jumpseat and ride on quite often, and I see them close the door early on standby's just to get the flight out early. I know the AA mechanics are in heated negotiations, and I back them 100%. If something is not right on the aircraft it needs to be documented, negotiations or not. Right before I left my previous regional, we got a few memos to watch out about leaving without taking care of even minor discrepancies. In other words, we were almost too focused on leaving on time. I have to admit, I appreciated that one.

Not sure of the entire back story, but if it is a legitimate write up, well, it happens.

Set brake. Go get coffee. Worry not.
 
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I'm usually one to defend airline on time departures to keep the operation going, but this we're leaving early no matter what is getting pretty ridiculous as you can see in the video. As far as I'm concerned, the brakes don't drop until, I, the PIC has an airworthy aircraft as agreed upon by the crew, Mx, and dispatch. Not some middle manager that flips his lid over 3 minutes. I jumpseat and ride on quite often, and I see them close the door early on standby's just to get the flight out early. I know the AA mechanics are in heated negotiations, and I back them 100%. If something is not right on the aircraft it needs to be documented, negotiations or not. Right before I left my previous regional, we got a few memos to watch out about leaving without taking care of even minor discrepancies. In other words, we were almost too focused on leaving on time. I have to admit, I appreciated that one.

I'm not sure if the manager was the mechanics boss and I hope the guy taking the video doesn't get fired for going public.
Aforementioned outfit sent a safety campaign saying “A safe operation runs on time, every time. Be safe. Be on time.” Which is...anyway.

“It’s in the book, have a nice day” is not a nice thing to have to say but at the end of the day it’s the right and safe decision.
 
Uh wait a minute the guy getting yelled at was a mechanic. Isn't it his job to do the fixing normally? The manager seems to be mad that he wrote something up and left it, which seems justified? What if it was one of those situations where the plane was late because the pilots showed up and the book was missing and no mechanic to be found (it happens). I'd like to hear the actual story, or even the audio of the manager without the news bleeping and talking over the entire thing.
 
Uh wait a minute the guy getting yelled at was a mechanic. Isn't it his job to do the fixing normally? The manager seems to be mad that he wrote something up and left it, which seems justified? What if it was one of those situations where the plane was late because the pilots showed up and the book was missing and no mechanic to be found (it happens). I'd like to hear the actual story, or even the audio of the manager without the news bleeping and talking over the entire thing.
It said he found it at the end of his shift. Fair enough. I'm pretty sure if I was the mechanics at American right now and just feeling like a super valued team member that I am, I'd write it up and hand it to the next shift to. Above and beyond doesn't exist when you're getting • on.

As far as taking the safety issue to the public, I understand that as well. I write so many reports. I'm averaging 1 report of some sort a flight this year regarding operational deficiencies, being asked to do illigal, unsafe things, being lied to to move an airplane illegally, ect. Nothing happens. Nothing changes. It's the same the next month, it's the same after the ASAP review completes. Nothing happens. The FAA reads these, or so I'm told, and nothing happens. They don't care. So it's frustrating to have a culture of being asked to violate regs, or lied and tricked into doing so and no one gives a •. My only hope is that it's helpful in the next NTSB investigation we have.
 
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I'm averaging 1 report of some sort a flight this year regarding operational deficiencies, being asked to do illigal, unsafe things, being lied to to move an airplane illegally, ect. Nothing happens. Nothing changes.

Okay well for one thing nobody is going to listen to the guy who submits a report every flight, that hurts your own credibility.
 
Okay well for one thing nobody is going to listen to the guy who submits a report every flight, that hurts your own credibility.
I averaged about 1 and a third writeups per leg on the CRJ-200. Most of them were cabin appearance items that sharp-eyed flight attendants dutifully brought to my attention and I dutifully placarded, because that's just how it is in the minor leagues with worn out equipment that endured 10 cycles a day for, well, however old those jank-ass jets are. I'd say some of them were things that crews simply shrugged and "lived with" in lieu of messing up their day as well, but crashing, or getting my ATP violated, would really mess up my day and I declined to take that risk.

I am absolutely unwilling to take a broken airplane flying.

As far as safety or occurrence reports, the report intake rate is probably going to be a function of a bunch of variables, but I would expect the nature of the operation, the experience of the pilots involved, the quality of the operational environment and a bunch of other minor players to drive that. I probably had to file one irregularity report a month; they were mandated at Old Job for things as trivial as birdstrikes to things as serious as in-flight fire. I filed plenty of ASAPs, probably also one a month if I were forced to guess, and a splattering of safety concern reports.

The only thing I ever heard from the chief pilot's office was "thank you, and please keep submitting these."

So, maybe not so much on that front.
 
Flight communication reports actually work wonders at my shop. We can fill one out for virtually anything. I was taking the employee bus from the lot to the terminal in the middle of the summer and the bus had no AC. By the time I got to the terminal, I was covered in sweat and looked disgusting. I took a picture of the bus number, wrote an FCR and got a response from some manager wrote back in a hour and told me the bus will be pulled and put into mx. The next day, I took the same bus and the AC was fixed. I was pleasantly surprised.
 
I am absolutely unwilling to take a broken airplane flying.

There’s really no need to have to. Not in the vast majority of civil aircraft operations. I can remember flying broken aircraft in combat, but that was because it was a required risk where there was a mission need, sometimes involving life/limb, but that’s a whole different thing. There’s no normal civil operation with any requirement to take risk(s) with aircraft having unsafe broken components. And I’m always surprised by pilots I come across here and there who are wanting find ways to do that; I always ask them “for what?”
 
I've got a buddy that does line maintenance at ORD for AA and I've heard the same stories from him for years. Management pressuring him to release airplanes and then getting pissy when he won't sign off on a broke airplane. Which, of course, it's his ass if something happens to it.
 
This sort of pressure is unfortunately very common when people are trying to make money using airplanes. It can be a squawk written by the crew or maintenance, it throws an unwanted wrinkle into "the plan". Often times, because the mechanic is the person that has to certify the aircraft as airworthy before it can legally fly an enormous amount of pressure will be put on them to "make it happen" by people that won't be held liable legally if something goes wrong. The sad thing is most of the time the people demanding that the airplane be released don't know how to repair it nor are they capable, they just insist that it has to be done.
 
Theres 2 sides to every story. There are bad managers. There are bad mechanics. There are managers that pressure and abuse mechanics, but there are also mechanics that don't get what it takes to make an airline run. Sometimes both sides need talking too. The way the manager handled the problem isn't professional and should be dealt with by his manager. It's AA, they can absorb a delay. It's better not to get riled up over this, approach the right channels to address the issue with this mechanic and go home. Stop making the airline dictate your life's mood.
 
Theres 2 sides to every story. There are bad managers. There are bad mechanics. There are managers that pressure and abuse mechanics, but there are also mechanics that don't get what it takes to make an airline run. Sometimes both sides need talking too.
I don’t think it’s applicable in this circumstance, but in my experience for every manager trying to get mechanics to look the other way there’s a mechanic trying to turn a daily check into a D-check.
 
I don’t think it’s applicable in this circumstance, but in my experience for every manager trying to get mechanics to look the other way there’s a mechanic trying to turn a daily check into a D-check.
Being a mechanic on the front line stinks. You're given a specific set of items to inspect/replace, but if you happen to notice something not on your list whose discretion prevails regarding writing it up? You can ask someone to go change a wheel because it has a worn tire, what if they get dripped on by a flap or aileron actuator that's leaking? They weren't there to inspect anything but they've identified a possible issue. The planners have allocated enough time for a wheel change, but a flight control squawk wasn't expected. It might be a leak that's within limits and the sort of thing that would be repaired at the next MX event, or maybe it isn't. Regardless it will certainly take more time to make sure it's not unsafe, I almost feel like the terms safe and not unsafe have somehow diverged inexplicably. I'll tell whoever to pound sand and walk away, I have no more •s to give.
 
They're anonymous so....
Also 1 per flight is like... 6 or 7 per month.

edit - nm nope, don't even want to get into this. If you worked here you'd understand.
And now I wonder if we work at the same place.
 
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