I will try to make this short....and not to hijack the thread....
Back in the 90's, I was working in the Middle East for an airline. My boss (who ran the airline) came into my office and asked if I had time to run the airport and attend the daily operations meeting at 9:00am.
I said...no problem....
So, I go to the airport (20 minute drive from HQ), and we have the usual department heads there and the VP of Flight OPS (which is rare) and the other two stations on the video box.
The topic of delays came up as our BKK flight was delayed for 3.5 hrs the day before and Flight Ops didn't want to take the hit and the flight which got a lot publicity because of the VIP's on-board.
So, after some back and forth, come to find out the Capt that was deadheading to operate to flight out of our other base to BKK got upset and walked off the plane and waited for the next flight to his duty start which caused the delay. He didn't notify anyone he was doing this, because if he did, we would have used a reserve Capt in from the other hub.
The reason he walked off the flight that ended up causing the BKK flight to be delayed for 3.5 hrs....
No dates to go with the Arabic coffee pre-departure service in F/C. 
Classic...not in the contract BTW for this over there....and guess what..catering did not take the delay and it ended up being Flt ops...
Originally Posted by
iluv2fly
What would he have done if discovered this in the air?
Easy...he would have called MEM (which is on the way to TPA), have them go downtown and get some ribs (or since we are talking chicken, make that BBQ Chicken) catered to meet the plane when they land in 1 hour in MEM!!