Thinking about the crew's ability to make decisions on the ground takes me back to me memoirs.
It's funny to read above about the captain's authority etc.. In the late 60s, I was a young first officer on a broken 1-11 in Seville. 39c and a broken air control valve. It popped the CB on ‘start' so no start on the stb. engine. I put on my Bicycle Repairman's outfit, and by some fluke detected a short to ground in the control solenoid in the stub-wing. It's strange how much of an airliner you can take apart with a Swiss army knife. I telexed the serial number of the entire valve to Luton, and in about four hours the part (and three engineers) were with us. Temp now 41c. But, true to form, our run of bad luck was still with us. The part's model was just a teeeeenzy bit wrong. ie, it was completely different. (It would have fitted a very colourful aircraft BTW.)
Things were getting tricky, the airport manager wanted to kick our pax out of the lounge as his (Spanish upper-class business type) passengers were arriving. He was being a total B
d. But then the engineers threw me a wobbler. Too hot, we're not working on that!!! We want to go to an hotel. This was the captain's domain. He organized the other aircraft to be re-scheduled and take our pax. Good move, but that left us cooking, and nowhere to go. No hotels no lounge...Back to me.
Finally the engineers believed me, there was
nowhere to go. I got them organized to hold the valve open with a very long extension bar. I kept the thing disconnected as long as I could, then reinstated the valve by a big plug. The panel had to be replaced after the engine was running. It took three blokes to stop the torque!
When we got on board, all the O2 had gone. Mmmm, and they don't believe in Sod's law. We came all the way back at 8,000 feet.
What would folk think about the use of such initiative these days? Or is it irrelevant because aviation has improved so much?