Medium Transport
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Private; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
I received a call from our Chief Safety Officer stating that the aircraft we flew yesterday had an open maintenance write-up which we and 8 other crews had flown with. The day before; I was briefed by my PIC on the information related to our flight that day including weather; NOTAMs; and other applicable concerns. No open write up was mentioned and we continued with our flight per usual. As an SIC I suggest that in the future I should specifically ask the PIC during the pre-flight briefing if there are any maintenance concerns. This would provide an extra layer of safety and redundancy in our processes and would hopefully help mitigate the risk of a situation like this occurring in the future.
We were dispatched to fly on commercial flight to pick up the aircraft at the maintenance center. Concerns with COVID exposure while traveling on commercial airlines are aggravating. Upon arrival at the airport we were directed to contact the maintenance base to have their van pick us up. When I called; the base informed me that the van service was discontinued. I put in an on-line request for a taxi ride. The address given did not take us to the service center; and there was much confusion and aggravation dealing with the taxi driver to try to get to the proper location. Upon eventual arrival at the service center the aircraft was ready for us; and I ordered fuel. I talked to maintenance both before leaving and during the trip; verifying that all of the paperwork for the maintenance performed was completed to their satisfaction. While completing pre-flight paperwork I apparently overlooked that the flight crew that had originally ferried the aircraft in had written up the pilot seat as a discrepancy; and that the open write-up had not been dealt with; either by being fixed or MELed. Verifying no open write-ups prior to flight is a company SOP; and one that I feel that I normally do as a matter of course. I can only think that dealing with the major maintenance paperwork on the maintenance issues pushed the possibility of an open write-up not related to that work to the side; and I did not properly review the past flight logs in the flight can; thus missing the write-up. My aggravated mental state at dealing with airlines and COVID concerns; multiplied by the ground transportation snafus; were certainly contributing factors.When non-typical operations are being dealt with; stop and take the time to triple-check every detail.
Corporate flight crew reported flying with an open maintenance write-up. The Captain stated COVID-19 concerns were a distraction.