I was on an Eagle flight out of Montreal once, where we got the usual gate announcement that the flight would be delayed, with of course no explanation for us lowlife passengers.

Then the captain came out into the waiting area, called us all over, and explained that the delay was due to a fire in an ATC center, and he didn't want to board us and have us sitting in a "hot tin can" for an indeterminate period of time.

I was shocked at the high level of information, customer service, and concern for passengers he provided. If they were still doing SOS's at the time I would have given him everyone I had.

'not exactly "brutally" blaming the ground crew, but I still admired the (unfortunately rare) honesty.