Narrative:

We had a return to field due to a loss of one of the nav computers. The delay dragged on and both pilots and flight attendants (flight attendant) were getting close to timing out (since we were at domicile; we were very close to going over 14 hours with our projected block time.) in a comedy of errors; the part missed its flight and when it finally arrived there was a maintenance shift change.when it became clear that maintenance would be unable to fix it before we timed out; they decided to do a last minute plane swap. Our captain (ca) questioned whether or not we could accomplish the swap before everyone timed out. I called scheduling to express this concern; as they had a 'new' departure time with about 30 minutes to reboard; cater; etc; etc.we had an unusual amount of wheelchair passengers and infants who had been stranded all day and we were very worried that they'd all be boarded up again only to have to deplane if we timed out. We were told there was nothing they could do; and they were sticking with their timetable. (About two hours prior; when it looked like we might time out; we informed ops; customer service agents (csa); etc. - Explaining they might want to plan for us timing out.)the mechanic came aboard our new aircraft and made it clear that he was very upset; saying something like; 'they are pressuring me to do my overwater check in 15 minutes. It normally takes me one hour.' he was very animated. Fas were very uncomfortable after that.we were told repeatedly that we had to close the door by [time] or the flight was going to cancel. As we had been afraid of; suddenly everything became a frantic rush; even though everyone had been rushing already. The csas were wanting to close the door after the last passenger was seated; but we hadn't been catered yet (we of course had expressed the concern that you can't safely transfer all the necessary catering in the short time they gave us.) we were being told that we had to shut the door [within one minute] or the flight would cancel. I was told repeatedly over the PA and interphone to tell catering they 'had to leave now.'this type of brinksmanship is a disaster waiting to happen and runs contrary to our purported 'safety first' culture. In addition; our official blockout time shows [a few minutes late]; so that plus our estimated block time would have put us over 14 hours duty at domicile.poor planning and failure to anticipate crew duty limitations.do not engage in duty day or maintenance timeline brinksmanship.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Flight Attendant reported about concern with the safety of the operation when the flight and ground crews were under pressure to get the aircraft out before they timed out.

Narrative: We had a return to field due to a loss of one of the nav computers. The delay dragged on and both pilots and Flight Attendants (FA) were getting close to timing out (since we were at domicile; we were very close to going over 14 hours with our projected block time.) In a comedy of errors; the part missed its flight and when it finally arrived there was a Maintenance shift change.When it became clear that Maintenance would be unable to fix it before we timed out; they decided to do a last minute plane swap. Our Captain (CA) questioned whether or not we could accomplish the swap before everyone timed out. I called scheduling to express this concern; as they had a 'new' departure time with about 30 minutes to reboard; cater; etc; etc.We had an unusual amount of wheelchair passengers and infants who had been stranded all day and we were very worried that they'd all be boarded up again only to have to deplane if we timed out. We were told there was nothing they could do; and they were sticking with their timetable. (About two hours prior; when it looked like we might time out; we informed ops; Customer Service Agents (CSA); etc. - explaining they might want to plan for us timing out.)The mechanic came aboard our new aircraft and made it clear that he was very upset; saying something like; 'They are pressuring me to do my overwater check in 15 minutes. It normally takes me one hour.' He was very animated. FAs were very uncomfortable after that.We were told repeatedly that we had to close the door by [time] or the flight was going to cancel. As we had been afraid of; suddenly everything became a frantic rush; even though everyone had been rushing already. The CSAs were wanting to close the door after the last passenger was seated; but we hadn't been catered yet (we of course had expressed the concern that you can't safely transfer all the necessary catering in the short time they gave us.) We were being told that we had to shut the door [within one minute] or the flight would cancel. I was told repeatedly over the PA and interphone to tell catering they 'had to leave now.'This type of brinksmanship is a disaster waiting to happen and runs contrary to our purported 'safety first' culture. In addition; our official blockout time shows [a few minutes late]; so that plus our estimated block time would have put us over 14 hours duty at domicile.Poor planning and failure to anticipate crew duty limitations.Do not engage in duty day or maintenance timeline brinksmanship.

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.