One of my last trips to MEX, we were brought a plane with an inop APU. I ran down to the ramp and implored them to get air hooked up ASAP.
Guess what? No conditioned air in MEX. I then asked them to hook up the huffer so that we could at least keep the packs running for the hour the plane sat on the ramp. Guess what? The huffer in MEX is barely capable of starting an engine, let alone run the packs. So, they refused our request. It was in the middle of the summer. Once loaded and hooked up, it took three tries to get an engine running with their crapped out huffer. What do you suppose the temp was in the cabin that day?

So, for all who claim that troublemakers are refusing reasonably airworthy planes, here is my anecdotal evidence that suggests other guys are carrying trash because they think....well hell, I don't know what they were thinking other than "Gosh, I sure don't want to take a call from the CP!".

Boy, we really shined that day. I wonder what Oscar would have said if he knew the whole story?

Stupid is as stupid does. And that was off the chart stupid.

Could we have refused the plane? Of course. And how would that have looked? Guys on APC would be giving us the giant (female canine) slap for buffoonery. "Why, I used to fly Twin Otters! We could only DREAM of an APU!"

Was the company better off getting it back into service, where it could be properly serviced? Of course. But that plane should never have been dispatched to MEX with an INOP APU.

Some hard decisions are easy.