Originally Posted by emcampbe

Maintenance is maintenance. Whether an engine is down or a tray table won't stay in the locked position, the plane can't take off. FAA regs - and things that seem minor (like an overhead door not latching shut) can, believe it or not, be bigger safety issues than one might imagine. Imagine that door opens on take off and stuff falls and hits the passenger below. Is that worth it?

I once was on an E45, though it was a while ago so don't remember he exact details, and the tray table was down in my seat in the single seat side, and I couldn't get it to shut properly. I was able to do something to jimmy it to stay up, though it wasn't that stable, and I moved to an empty seat in the other side of that row. Technically, I know I should've let the FA know, but really didn't want to get the flight canceled or blow my connection, or that of the other 40+ on board, over something I considered fairly minor, especially since I was able to do something to get it temporarily fixed, and where they likely could get it fixed much quicker at a hub vs. the outstation I was departing from. So I let the FA know once we had taken off, knowing at that point, that they could report it to get it foxed once we landed.