Movers in the Brize terminal are not known for their customer care or telling the truth. Had a broken VC10 one morning (hyd valve stuck) and it was going to be a part change or a frame swap. VC10 already loaded with army bags and weapons (takes movers HOURS) so I'm thinking that a part change might be quicker.
Pass on options to movers to keep pax in picture. In any event, we are likely to go, if a couple of hours late. Short while later find out part may not be in stores so frame swap looms ... ugly. Starting to move crew kit and I decide to go into terminal to tell pax myself. Movers get jittery at my suggestion - "No need sir .... um .... we'll do it." I ignore them, and grab the tannoy mike and give pax a concise picture of the problem and our likely solution. I also remind them of the VC10s age and suggest that if they were still using 40 year old trucks they might have similar issues. Army captain comes up and says thanks as they have been told little by the terminal staff, who had cited ATC as the problem (where do they dream this **** up?).
Shortly thereafter VC10 ground engineer says they've managed to get the original hyd valve to work again. I grab the bull by the horns, tell crew to move kit back to original jet and make another tannoy to the effect that we'll load in a couple of minutes and get outta here. A few weak cheers from the pax and sullen looks from the movers and terminal staff. Tossers.