A Night Sector to Riyadh: MEL Limits and a Foreseeable FDP Overrun
22:15 local time, Kuwait International (OKBK). A Kuwait-registered A320 is scheduled to Riyadh (OERK), a 1 h 00 min night sector, with two pilots and four cabin crew. The crew reported at 09:55 and has been continuously on duty since; two day sectors have already been flown. A pressurisation controller fault has now grounded the aircraft for two hours. The new plan departs at 22:35 and shuts down at OERK at about 23:35 - a flight duty period (FDP) of 13 h 40 min. The operator's Kuwait DGCA-approved FTL scheme allows a maximum two-pilot FDP of 13 h, with commander's discretion of up to 60 min, taken as two blocks of no more than 30 min, each recorded with justification and notified to the operator. Line maintenance also raises two items: the left aft escape slide reservoir pressure gauge sits in the red arc, and VHF 2 is intermittent. The approved MEL lists VHF 2 as category C (10 days) with no operational condition; the slide gauge is not listed. The first officer says both can be carried under MEL.
1. May the aircraft be dispatched with the two defects, and who actually decides?
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Two separate questions, two separate decision-makers.
VHF 2. This is an MEL item. Only certifying maintenance staff, approved by the operator and acceptable to Kuwait DGCA, can defer it - by certifying release to service against the MEL entry. Category C means rectification within 10 calendar days; the entry carries no operational (O) condition, so no extra limitation is imposed by the MEL itself. The commander must still be satisfied the remaining equipment meets the requirements of the route and airspace. With VHF 1 serviceable, normal ATS communication is available, so this item alone would not stop the flight.
Slide gauge. The approved MEL is an exhaustive list. A defect that is not listed is not deferrable, and the aircraft is not airworthy for that flight. No discretionary power of the commander can convert a non-MEL defect into a legal dispatch. A slide reservoir reading in the red arc means an evacuation device may not deploy - a safety-equipment and certification item, not an operational nicety.
Authority runs one way. Under ICAO Annex 2 the commander has final authority over the aircraft and may refuse a flight; he may never authorise one that the approved documentation forbids. The correct action is to have engineering rectify the item, or to obtain a specific approved deviation from the Authority. The first officer's statement is wrong and should be corrected on the spot.
2. Can the commander use discretion to cover the 40-minute overrun and launch the flight?
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Arithmetic first: report 09:55 plus 13 h 40 min to shutdown at 23:35 is 40 min beyond the 13 h maximum. The 60-minute discretion is not a single block - it must be taken as two blocks of no more than 30 min each, so even a 40-minute extension consumes two blocks and two written justifications. That is the second obstacle, not the first.
Discretion in FTL schemes is framed for unforeseen circumstances - events that arise after the duty has started and could not be planned for. Here the overrun is known before departure and is caused by a maintenance delay the operator can manage by re-crewing or re-timing. Using discretion to absorb a foreseeable ground delay is the classic misuse of the provision, and it would be hard to defend at audit, because the justification field would have to describe a circumstance that was in fact fully known.
So the answer is: the flight should not depart as planned at 13 h 40 min. The operator must provide a fresh crew or delay until a compliant FDP exists. The commander may still ask the operator to consider an extension, but the burden of demonstrating unforeseen circumstances sits with the operator. Always check the exact wording of the approved scheme - whether the circumstance counts as unforeseen is decisive.
3. If the commander judges the crew too tired to fly, what may he do and what must be recorded?
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Authority. Under ICAO Annex 2 (repeated in Annex 6) the commander has final authority over the aircraft and may refuse to fly if he considers himself or the crew unfit. The operator cannot override that decision, and refusal on fatigue grounds is not misconduct - it is the exercise of a duty.
Records. (1) A fatigue report or safety report through the operator's SMS, stating hours awake, sleep obtained, sectors flown, and time of day - this is the data the operator needs for roster risk analysis. (2) A factual entry in the technical log or operations log recording the delay reason, the unfit declaration and the time. (3) Notification to the duty manager/operations control so the commercial consequence is handled properly. (4) A mandatory occurrence report to Kuwait DGCA if the event meets the State reporting criteria - for example an actual FDP exceedance, or a crew member declared unfit. An exceedance that happens and is not reported is itself a breach.
The exam point: this is a foreseeable-delay problem, not a discretion problem, and the belief that the captain can authorise anything is a reliable distractor.