Narrative:

During preflight; I found the ops specs to be out of date. I immediately called dispatch and notified them of the issue. I was put on hold and when the dispatcher came back on the line he notified me that the certificate chief pilot had granted permission to fly this flight with the old ops specs. I requested a written document that indicated this waiver; and was put on hold again. When the dispatcher came back the second time he gave me the phone number for the certificate chief pilot and told me to call him. When I did; [certificate chief pilot] made it clear; in no uncertain terms; that I did not need written permission and that his word was 'good enough'; and that he had authority to issue this waiver in this case to get the airplane back. I took that as correct and departed. The flight diverted later due to weather; refueled and continued on the same flight number to destination; where the aircraft terminated for the night. I became aware 12 days later in an alpa email that no one; not even the certificate chief pilot has authority to issue a waiver regarding out of date manuals.I wish I had known that the chief pilot cannot issue a waiver regarding this. I also wish that the certificate chief pilot had not pressured me into the flight or told me that he had the authority when; in fact; he did not. I hope to have written documentation that no one can issue a waiver regarding this issue for possible disputes with the flight ops department in the future.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB175 Captain discovers that the OpSpec aboard his aircraft is out of date and informs the Dispatcher. The Chief Pilot contacts the Captain and authorizes him to operate back to base with the out of date OpSpec. The reporter learns later that the Chief Pilot does not have this authority.

Narrative: During preflight; I found the Ops Specs to be out of date. I immediately called dispatch and notified them of the issue. I was put on hold and when the dispatcher came back on the line he notified me that the Certificate Chief Pilot had granted permission to fly this flight with the old Ops Specs. I requested a written document that indicated this waiver; and was put on hold again. When the dispatcher came back the second time he gave me the phone number for the Certificate Chief Pilot and told me to call him. When I did; [Certificate Chief Pilot] made it clear; in no uncertain terms; that I did not need written permission and that his word was 'good enough'; and that he had authority to issue this waiver in this case to get the airplane back. I took that as correct and departed. The flight diverted later due to weather; refueled and continued on the same flight number to destination; where the aircraft terminated for the night. I became aware 12 days later in an ALPA email that no one; not even the Certificate Chief Pilot has authority to issue a waiver regarding out of date manuals.I wish I had known that the Chief Pilot cannot issue a waiver regarding this. I also wish that the Certificate Chief Pilot had not pressured me into the flight or told me that he had the authority when; in fact; he did not. I hope to have written documentation that no one can issue a waiver regarding this issue for possible disputes with the Flight Ops department in the future.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.