Narrative:

Approximately 1 hr. Before departure crew proceeded to gate to pre-flight aircraft. When we arrived at gate maintenance was doing an engine run on #1 engine. Maintenance explained to us that the #1 engine would not start when moving the a/c from hangar to the gate. We were told the engine start valve had to be manually opened and locked closed on the inbound flight the previous day. The aircraft was at the hangar overnight. During the engine run the mechanics; also noted the hpv was not acting correctly and deferred the hpv. This put us in 'no flight into known icing' situation. Dispatch; sent a message about the deferral and stated it should not be a problem. After reviewing the paperwork the captain called dispatch and asked about our enroute altitudes that had snow showers/blowing snow and I believe light freezing rain. The captain and dispatch agreed to down the aircraft for our flight. During our wait to see what a/c we were going to fly; the mechanic came to the cockpit and explained to us that his supervisor told him to ask us if they removed the deferral of the hpv would we take the a/c? As he put it; according to his supervisor then we wouldn't have the 'no known icing restrictions.' we told the mechanic 'no way!' we were then informed that we would be flying a different aircraft and they were bringing it to a new gate. Thus the flight was delayed due to a/c maintenance issues (second aircraft) flight attendant legalities and aircraft servicing. Before we pushed back for departure; a flight office representative was in the cockpit talking on his phone to operations. He asked us if we were going to extend if we needed to. He was told no; which I heard him pass on to operations on his cell. After push back; during engine start. Dispatch sent ACARS message stating that the 'operations manager says new [departure] time for you is xc:15' this is a 2 hour extension from our [original departure] time of xa:15 without flt. Crew/capt. Concurrence!! Which is a direct violation of far 117! After engine start; we continued as we believed we could depart before original [departure] time. Which we did with 5 min. To spare. If we would have stopped to correct the operations manager that we were not extending we would not have been legal to continue the flight I do not believe we violated far 117 due to the fact we were airborne before the original [departure] time. I have concerns with the safety of our operation when managers are pushing employees to continue without or past a point of being properly rested for their jobs.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported an aircraft swap caused a departure delay for an international flight. Some flight attendants go illegal and were taken off the flight as reserves were summoned. The flight departed with only 13 of the 15 flight attendants on the weight and balance and without the flight crew being aware.

Narrative: Approximately 1 hr. before departure crew proceeded to gate to pre-flight aircraft. When we arrived at gate maintenance was doing an engine run on #1 engine. Maintenance explained to us that the #1 engine would not start when moving the a/c from hangar to the gate. We were told the engine start valve had to be manually opened and locked closed on the inbound flight the previous day. The aircraft was at the hangar overnight. During the engine run the mechanics; also noted the HPV was not acting correctly and deferred the HPV. This put us in 'no flight into known icing' situation. Dispatch; sent a message about the deferral and stated it should not be a problem. After reviewing the paperwork the Captain called dispatch and asked about our enroute altitudes that had snow showers/blowing snow and I believe light freezing rain. The Captain and dispatch agreed to down the aircraft for our flight. During our wait to see what a/c we were going to fly; the mechanic came to the cockpit and explained to us that his supervisor told him to ask us if they removed the deferral of the HPV would we take the a/c? As he put it; according to his supervisor then we wouldn't have the 'No Known Icing restrictions.' We told the mechanic 'NO WAY!' We were then informed that we would be flying a different aircraft and they were bringing it to a new gate. Thus the flight was delayed due to a/c maintenance issues (second aircraft) FA legalities and aircraft servicing. Before we pushed back for departure; a Flight office representative was in the cockpit talking on his phone to operations. He asked us if we were going to extend if we needed to. He was told no; which I heard him pass on to operations on his cell. After push back; during engine start. Dispatch sent ACARS message stating that the 'OPS MANAGER SAYS NEW [departure] TIME FOR YOU IS XC:15' This is a 2 hour extension from our [original departure] time of XA:15 without Flt. Crew/Capt. concurrence!! Which is a direct violation of FAR 117! After engine start; we continued as we believed we could depart before original [departure] time. Which we did with 5 min. to spare. If we would have stopped to correct the OPS Manager that we were not extending we would not have been legal to continue the flight I do not believe we violated FAR 117 due to the fact we were airborne before the original [departure] time. I have concerns with the safety of our operation when managers are pushing employees to continue without or past a point of being properly rested for their jobs.

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.