I am guessing however, that the were probably not trained
My thoughts exactly when I first heard about this.
If true, it more or less backs up Wiley's comments about "cheapest option". There was a time, before the beancounters took over damn near every facet of our jobs, where an untrained person would never have been in a position airside or in a maintenance hangar where he or she could have made such a decision (to switch the fittings).