If that means putting down a checklist and starting again on the other side, then that's what it means. I don't think you can expect a whole line of departures to hold for one aircraft who is not yet ready.
The crews, while they might get frustrated for a moment, all understand that if it takes an extra 3 mintues to do something safely, then so be it.
well MDW isnt SFO and if the crew knew they needed 3 minutes they should have given ATC a heads up.iam looking at the SFO taxi chart and 28R hold line isnt a Hot Spot and if a 2 crew A/C cant taxi an aircraft 300 feet stright ahead they should not be flying. the controller wasnt asking for anything crazy.
I didn't say that MDW and SFO were the same, or that 28R is a hot spot. I am pointing out that airports with multiple runway & taxiway intersections demand that both crew members be heads up and looking where they are going, rather than 1 being inside while the other is outside. What if the captain were to make a mistake and taxi where he shouldn't have been? (I believe this exact scenario played out in FLL recently, resulting in a <300' near miss runway incursion)
You mention "if a 2 crew aircraft can't taxi 300 feet they should not be flying", I ask you this: What is the amount of taxi required for both crewmembers to be paying attention? 400 feet? 1000 feet? There was a runway crossing involved. All checklists are held during a crossing, no questions asked.
No, the controller wasn't asking for anything crazy. But the crew was obviously having some sort of problem, and the distraction wasn't helping.
To be honest, I find it hard to believe that you guys are so quick to blame United for asking for a 3 minute delay to do something safely. Yes, they
should have been ready. But they weren't. Why make the situation worse by compounding a difficult situation (something wrong with some programming somewhere) with more complexity (go now or move out of the way now)? Air crashes don't result from 1 mistake (error in programming). They are caused by a chain of mistakes: error in programming, resulting in being hurried, while trying to change runways/briefings/configurations.
One of the first things in CRM training is we (humans) are not perfect, we will never be. The only thing we can do is know and identify some key problem areas, and to be aware of them so we know to avoid them.
I mean nothing personally here, but have you ever taken a course on CRM?