A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Other / Unknown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors
After bag loading; the lead ramp person informed me that one of the hooks at the bottom of the rear cargo door net was missing completely. I entered this discrepancy into the aircraft log book and notified Maintenance Control via ACARS of the write up. We got no response from Maintenance; probably due to the spotty coverage in the area; so after 15 minutes or so I called them to see if they had received my message. They had not so explained to the Maintenance supervisor our problem. His response was; did you put it in the book? I said yes it is a write up in the aircraft log. He then said well now we have a real problem because we have no Maintenance in [this station] and this is not a crew deferrable item. He then proceeds to say if I had not put it in the book we could have gotten the airplane to a station where we had Maintenance. I can not believe what I just heard; Maintenance Control is pushing the operation of aircraft with an open item to a place that is convenient for them to work on the plane. He then went on to say this would be a lengthy delay and that our Maintenance personnel had left [this station] the week before. Are we still operating this airline like a back woods hick operation? The ground personnel notified me of the problem with the airplane so it goes in the book; period end of story. It is not the crews problem of where do we have Maintenance today; that's the company's problem. As it was we did have contract maintenance and it ended up being about a 50 minute delay to do things the way they are supposed to be done. To even suggest to a pilot that maybe if you don't write that up where you are we can deal with it at the end of the day is unconscionable. Crew members should never allow the convenience of the company or the insinuations of an extended delay determine the discrepancy entry into the log of the plane. If it is broken write it up. In the Airbus this is extremely important due to the nature of its design. When we call Maintenance Control there should be only two responses; either we can do a pilot deferral or we are calling out Maintenance personnel at this time.
A319 Captain reported entering a cargo net discrepancy in the logbook prior to departure and informing Maintenance. The Captain was then chastised by the Maintenance Controller for making the entry at a non maintenance base.