Widebody; Low Wing; 4 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200; Flight Crew Total 9848; Flight Crew Type 8984
Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Company Policy; Human Factors
Approximately 1 hr. before departure crew proceeded to gate to pre-flight aircraft. When we arrived at gate maintenance was doing an engine run on #1 engine. Maintenance explained to us that the #1 engine would not start when moving the a/c from hangar to the gate. We were told the engine start valve had to be manually opened and locked closed on the inbound flight the previous day. The aircraft was at the hangar overnight. During the engine run the mechanics; also noted the HPV was not acting correctly and deferred the HPV. This put us in 'no flight into known icing' situation. Dispatch; sent a message about the deferral and stated it should not be a problem. After reviewing the paperwork the Captain called dispatch and asked about our enroute altitudes that had snow showers/blowing snow and I believe light freezing rain. The Captain and dispatch agreed to down the aircraft for our flight. During our wait to see what a/c we were going to fly; the mechanic came to the cockpit and explained to us that his supervisor told him to ask us if they removed the deferral of the HPV would we take the a/c? As he put it; according to his supervisor then we wouldn't have the 'No Known Icing restrictions.' We told the mechanic 'NO WAY!' We were then informed that we would be flying a different aircraft and they were bringing it to a new gate. Thus the flight was delayed due to a/c maintenance issues (second aircraft) FA legalities and aircraft servicing. Before we pushed back for departure; a Flight office representative was in the cockpit talking on his phone to operations. He asked us if we were going to extend if we needed to. He was told no; which I heard him pass on to operations on his cell. After push back; during engine start. Dispatch sent ACARS message stating that the 'OPS MANAGER SAYS NEW [departure] TIME FOR YOU IS XC:15' This is a 2 hour extension from our [original departure] time of XA:15 without Flt. Crew/Capt. concurrence!! Which is a direct violation of FAR 117! After engine start; we continued as we believed we could depart before original [departure] time. Which we did with 5 min. to spare. If we would have stopped to correct the OPS Manager that we were not extending we would not have been legal to continue the flight I do not believe we violated FAR 117 due to the fact we were airborne before the original [departure] time. I have concerns with the safety of our operation when managers are pushing employees to continue without or past a point of being properly rested for their jobs.
Just before push back and just minutes before our [departure] duty time was to expire. Several FAs went illegal for duty time. We were told that the FAs were being replaced with reserves. After a short period we received a call from a gate agent I believe; who asked to close the door. Capt. told them yes; they close the door and we proceeded to push back and start. We received our weights and start and taxi out was normal. Takeoff and climb was normal; about 1-2 hours into the flight the Purser called the cockpit with a question and he mentioned that the 2 reserve FAs never made the flight and they only had 13 FAs. But; our WB showed we had 15 FAs. I told the Captain I believe we departed with an invalid WB which I thought made us illegal. Contacted dispatch to find out if we dispatched illegally. We were told no we were not. When asked about the mismatch FAs numbers; we were given excuses on where the numbers are for 3 hrs. We were told the 2 extra FAs on WB were FAs that were jump seating. When asked the Jumpseaters names as no one knew about them. We were told that was a mistake they were Cockpit jumpseaters. Informed dispatch that we had no Cockpit jumpseaters! Dispatch still insisted they were Cockpit jumpseaters; so we asked for their names so we could confirm they were onboard... Then we were told the Cockpit jumpseaters were a mistake. That they were the two IROs. The Duty Manager sent us an ACARS message saying that there was some confusion and the company transitioned from 15 FAs to 13 FAs and told us he would get us correct weights.I believe we departed with bad WB info. We had no way of knowing as we were told the 2 illegal FAs were being replaced with reserves. They were not and we were never informed of the staffing change. There were several Supervisors working the AC as we (the pilots) were also going illegal. Someone decided to shut the door without the reserve FAs onboard. They did not follow company procedures to ensure Load Planning was informed of changes. This is the third report on that flight that morning. I cannot see with everything that happened on this flight where anyone was concerned with safety but the flight crew. From what I saw everyone else was concerned on the flight leaving regardless of how it left.
Air carrier flight crew reported an aircraft swap caused a departure delay for an international flight. Some flight attendants go illegal and were taken off the flight as reserves were summoned. The flight departed with only 13 of the 15 flight attendants on the weight and balance and without the flight crew being aware.