Iirc, it was a LONG time ago (late 1940s) at MEX, we had a mechanical heading to MTY and SAT iirc. Major engine problem, it turned out. Much disassembly and removal of parts, a number of which were placed on a canvas tarp on the apron. We pax were observing all of this from the waiting room, including watching the ground folks putting Humpty Dumpty back together again and the pilot's looking on, for a number of hours. Oh, yes, this was a DC-3. I saw all 18 spark plugs... on the ground. Compensation? Uh, what? We did get a free show, and occasionally cheered them on.

A non-AA incident was under priority orders on Pan Am flight 1 en route to Vietnam in 1963. SFO-HML was uneventful. But when a tug driver punched into the 707-121B iirc fuselage with a baggage cart, we were forced to overnight at the airline's expense while the aircraft was repaired. Bunch of GIs made such good use of the time, but didn't spend much time in our hotel rooms.

One December 1977 one was at GUA, a GU / Aviateca Fokker F-27 scheduled GUA-TKM but due to flooding of the airstrip was rescheduled to FRS. At last minute the FO found a problem with the port landing gear, so we were delayed hours. They put the F-27 up on jacks and the crew began working on the gear leg. The team effort fizzled as it got warmer, and we then we were treated to a memorable show.

A guy would walk up to the aircraft, look the system, parts and tools on the apron and an oily 55 gallon drum that served as a shop table. He'd then pick up a tool, use it for a short while and walk back to the hangar area. After a bit, a totally different guy would come over, peer at everything and start swinging a tool. No tech order, no checklist... and this was repeated until someone decided they were done. Again, we were all observing from the waiting room.

The FO was advised, he looked it over as the gear was cycled a couple of times and as aircraft was placed back on the ground. We boarded (with some trepidation at this point), we looked at the TAA plaques and seat belt buckles, the Air Niugini decals and instruction signs in pidgin, the tears in the cabin ceiling headliner abd various wear spots - and off we went, uneventfully. Landing at Sta. Elena we descended over a wrecked Aviateca DC-3 just short of the runway threshold - they hadn't even repainted it.

Then again, some of my flights with my uncle Ricardo were interesting, too. We'd buzz the grass patch, folks would chase the cows off, we'd land upslope, remove any cow pie we'd managed to land on and splatter on the plane, load fuel from 55 gallon drums (I remember one time there was no filter - he used his felt hat to filter the avgas), load up, take off downslope and off we'd go. Memorable days! (I learned to be a much more cautious pilot from him.)