Theoretically yes, it would be the dispatcher's job however they did not know at the time we contacted them. Would they have found out later? would it have been in time? who knows. That day was a mess for a ton of our flights and they had their hands full. They could have easily missed it completely.

I'm not denying the merits to monitoring guard, however with the circus show it has become on the eastern half of the country, I do not find myself very motivated to change what already works. The Delta story is definitely one good reason to do it though.