Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 73; Flight Crew Total 586; Flight Crew Type 65
Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Logbook Entry; Human Factors; Aircraft
I was performing my daily preflight inspection before my flight when 3 FAA guys approached me and said they are here to do a ramp check; so I told my Captain that the FAA is here so he could go talk to them. About 1 hour passed by and I went up to one of the FAA guys inspecting the plane and asked 'is everything all good on the plane and will we be able to fly' and he replied 'that's up to your Captain and company if they would want to continue the flight to airport ZZZZ'. So I walked over to my Captain and asked if everything was all good to do the trip to ZZZZ and he told me 'Yes everything is okay with the plane and I've called dispatch and we're good to go'. So thinking he was on the phone with the company which he didn't tell the company about the slip of items that needed to get fixed nor did he tell me. By the time we landed in ZZZZ my chief pilot called me and asked me why we flew with open maintenance items; I reply back 'The Captain told me everything was good and dispatch approved to go on this flight'. The Captain really just told them that there was a ramp check and nothing about the items they wrote down that needed to get fixed. So the company and I had no idea that they wrote items down and that the plane was grounded. If knowing that the plane was grounded and the flight was not approved I would not have gone on that flight and would have notified maintenance and my chief pilot on the issues they wrote down. The lack in communication from the captain created an issue that the company and I could have handled by just saying no and cancelling the flight if knowing that there was maintenance items that needed to be fixed. From me being a flight instructor and a professional pilot I would have told him that we couldn't continue the flight due to the issues written down about the aircraft.
The crew of an SD-3 flew a trip with open maintenance items.