Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
When I arrived on the flight deck at XB:20Z to operate flight xxx ZZZ-ZZZ1 I found the [Maintenance Release] waiting on the printer for me. I began to review the [Maintenance Release] and noticed valid the time of the [Maintenance Release] was XA:16Z. The inbound flight had written up the PA volume as being weak. My [Maintenance Release] stated that the IFE (Inflight Entertainment System) was re-booted and the technician signed off the PA as 'good to go'? I immediately contacted ZZZ hub maintenance and asked if my XA:16Z [Maintenance Release] was still valid. They checked and informed me that indeed it was the current and valid [Maintenance Release]. I then queried them as to how it was possible that a technician came onboard and rebooted the IFE and found it in good operable condition 50 minutes before the aircraft arrived on the gate?? Flight blocked in at XB:06Z and my [Maintenance Release] with an open inbound write up was supposedly resolved at XA:16Z. Obviously; the technician that signed off the write up never touched the airplane and the mechanic who signed off my airworthiness release never followed up with the vendor that signed it off or didn't notice that the inbound write up had been 'resolved' prior to the aircrafts' actual arrival on the gate.I place great trust in our maintenance chain of action and I was very disturbed by the fact that there was such a lack of follow through and lack of checks and double checks to ensure that my aircraft was legal to fly! This time thankfully it was a simple PA write up and not something more serious but; the fact remains that my aircraft was 'pencil whipped' and signed off to be legal without proper verification of the status of the aircraft as being airworthy by those who were responsible to do so.
B777 flight crew noted that the Maintenance Release was illegally signed off prior to aircraft arrival.