Steve said:
I don't expect AIPA to have a crack at their members, that's not their job.
I beg to differ.
I reckon the union has a responsibility to not defend the indefensible - the tenets of "just culture" apply equally to representative bodies as they do to employers.
If the crew was being "operationally clever" in order to get home or not inconvenience their employer, a suggestion not in any way substantiated, then the union should make sure that those pilots know that their actions are illegal and, more importantly, may cover the start of a defect sequence that can bite them in the arse before they get home. If the System of Maintenance, the Maintenance Control Manual and the Defect Rectification Procedures do not adequately cater for the problem occurring at a non-maintenance base, then the problem is for the operator to solve, not the pilots.
The union is there to protect its members and their system of work when both do the right thing. The union is there to protect its members from their system of work when the latter does not do the right thing, but not vice versa.
PS I can't believe that anyone would seriously respond to the troll MP!