Well it's a rosy view of the situation, and about a week too late, but better than nothing i suppose.
Minute traces of corrosion do not prevent aircraft from being signed out of a "c" check. So the corrosion is serious enough to warrant structural repair and a furhter unscheduled maintenance inspection taking 1/3 rd of the entire Gulf Air fleet out of operation. So i'd not describe that as minor. I doubt the tail of the aircraft was about to fall off either though.
"Gounded" technically means that DGCAM ordered the aircraft to stop flying while in this case Gulf Air voluntarily withdrew the aircraft from service for the inspections, no doubt at the strong advice from SR Technics.
As far as i know the aircraft that was in Dublin since Nov. '06 is undergoing a C check (which shouldn't normally take more than a week depending on the AMO). During that inspection they found corrosion that required a strucutral repair, and no doubt other maintenance as well. Why it has taken so long to fix is a question i don't know the answer to.
According to rostering between the 14th and 21st we should see the first aircraft come back and then the others slowly trickle in bit by bit 9subject to change with no prior notice of course). I would expect a limited amount of flying in the last week or two of March, gradually increasing back to normal levels during april. On that note if you have outstanding leave you want to take, pretty sure you won't have a problem getting it in March if you're a boeing driver.
that's the plan for today, stand byfor the new one tomorrow
