Originally Posted by aluminumdriver

While mechanical delays are a pain, this doesn't seem to be that big of a deal in the big scheme of things. Wasn't there a blizzard in Chicago yesterday too? First, getting updates from EASYupdate is a good thing no? If the times weren't matching, then I would get on the internet to check it out, but at least you were getting some notice that the airplane was having issues.



The 737's don't even fly anymore, we retired the last one last month, so not sure where that 737 comes from you are talking about. Another airline? Secondly, the cleaners cannot be on a plane in the maintenance hangar since it is being worked on. They have to wait until it gets to the gate. Every airline would be like that, has to do with maintenance being done on the plane.



After maintenance is done, the mechanic inputs into the computer what was done to fix the aircraft. This information is reviewed out in San Francisco by our Maintenance Control. After everything is checked for legalities and fulfilling all FAA requirements, we get sent to us in the cockpit a new Maintenance Release Document (MRD). This can take a while if it is an involved maintenance issue.



Sorry but waiting 5 minutes to find the mechanic so sign something off isn't that big of a deal. That mechanic probably went straight from that airbus to another aircraft to work on. It takes a little time to find him again if needed, probably not off to lunch as you say.

Since MRD's can take a while to produce, the ground crew is not going to sit in the blizzard waiting, they go back inside to protected environments until we call them for the tug again. It's worth that 1 minute wait to keep our employees from sitting in the elements.

Overall, with the weather that was going on yesterday, and having a mechanical, a 2 hour wait isn't all that huge a deal, and I think not a bad way to run an airline in my opinion. In fact, the only problem here is the crew attempted to keep you in the loop with regular updates, and you then turn that against the company by complaining about 5 min here and 1 min there. If he had just kept quiet, it wouldn't have seemed like so many minor irritances overall probably.

Glad you made it safely to BWI, that is our ultimate goal.

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