When 496 left Atlas for Polar it was in pretty good shape and had been pretty well taken care of. When it came back from Polar (the first time) I was one of the first ones to fly it. There were scuff marks all over the walls, the carpet was torn up and the light fixtures and switches in the bunks were broken or missing. The cockpit was a pig-sty, the chiller did not work, the oven was filthy and did not work; the hot cup even worse. The carpet was torn up and filthy. The blue room was filthy and the galley in general was so dirty and full of old food and catering it took us almost an entire flight to clean it up. The cockpit controls were chipped and the center pedestal was so dirty it looked like it had not been cleaned since it left Atlas.
The Polar pilots have the same tools that the Atlas pilots have to keep the airplane clean. None, other than not taking the airplane until it is properly ground serviced, or writing up inop items such as the galley equipment. But in all my time at Atlas I have never flown an airplane that was in worse shape; especially not a -400 that was only about 8 years old.
Perhaps fixing the blame on the Polar pilots is wrong - but if the shoe fits?? We will certainly know when we all start flying the same airplanes; or when 416 comes back to Atlas.
Layinlow are you still at Polar???