Oh man. Gotta love those rampers that know more about the airplane than those of us who fly them. Had a guy pull that back in my RJ days. He points out a dent near the boarding door during an outstation turn. I'd noticed the same dent leaving the hub earlier and we had called mx and sure enough, the dent was known to mx and had been catalogued. I explain all this to our aviation hero and proceed to finish my walk around.

A few minutes later our hero appears in the cockpit to tell us that contract mx should arrive within an hour and they were going to hold off boarding. Of course this is greeted by a couple of "wtfs!?" from the captain and myself. Turns out this guy had gone over our heads, called MAINLINE hq who had called out contract mx and threw a fit at our company's mx guys. Maybe 15 minutes later the captain's phone rings and it's the director of flight ops wanting to know what the hell is going on. Needless to say, a goat rope ensued and we took about a four hour delay while hands were wringed and asses were covered. All to reach the conclusion we had reached before ever leaving the hub: the dent was known, documented and the aircraft was indeed airworthy. Where do they find these guys indeed.