# Why can't I book this aircraft?

> If the booking is refused with "Resource is grounded", the aircraft has been taken off the line and only an admin or a technician can put it back. Open squawks are a warning and never block a booking.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/why-cant-i-book-this-aircraft
Section: Maintenance and squawks. For: Instructors, Students, Renters, Dispatchers.

If the booking is refused with "Resource is grounded.", somebody has taken that aircraft off
the line and only an admin or a technician can put it back. Open squawks never block a
booking: they are a warning and nothing more.

**Who can do this:** Instructors, Students, Renters, Dispatchers

## Read the airworthiness notice

Pick the aircraft on the booking form and, if there is anything to know about it, an
**airworthiness notice** appears above the form.

![New booking, airworthiness notice](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/booking-airworthiness-notice.png)

It carries two separate things:

- A red line reading that the tail is grounded, followed by the reason.
- An amber list of open squawks, with a count and up to four titles.

The red line means the booking will be refused. The amber list does not.

## Grounded means the booking will be refused

Save a booking on a grounded aircraft and it fails with "Resource is grounded." The only
exception is a maintenance booking, which is allowed precisely so the aircraft can be taken
to the shop and brought back.

A grounding comes from one of two places:

| Reason shown                                | Where it came from                                                                                                  | How it lifts                                                    |
| ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The single word "Maintenance"               | An inspection carrying the Grounds flag came due                                                                    | Automatically, when the last such inspection is signed off      |
| Anything a person wrote, like "Prop strike" | An admin or a technician grounded the tail by hand, or a squawk was filed with **Grounds the aircraft** switched on | Only when an admin or a technician clicks **Return to service** |

## Open squawks are a warning, not a block

An aircraft with four open squawks is still bookable. The notice is there so you can make
the call: a soft brake is a different conversation from a burned-out map light.

If you think the tail should not fly, say so to an admin. Filing another squawk will not
stop it being booked either.

## Find every grounded aircraft in the picker

The aircraft picker on the booking form annotates each option with **Grounded** and with an
open-squawk count, so you can see the state of the fleet before you commit to a tail. Typing
"grounded" into the picker filters it down to what is out of service.

The same view, with more detail, is at
`Maintenance → Inspections` (web console), where grounded tails are the first group.
Dispatchers, admins and technicians can open that page.

![Maintenance, Inspections grouped by aircraft](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance-by-aircraft.png)

## Dragging it on the dispatch board is refused too

Dragging an existing booking onto a grounded aircraft fails with a message naming the tail
and the reason, and telling you only maintenance can be booked on it. Ramping out a booking
that is already on a grounded tail is refused as well, which is why a grounding that lands
mid-morning needs somebody to work the board afterwards.

## Who can lift a grounding

Admins and owners. Not dispatchers, and not technicians, despite technicians owning the rest
of the maintenance work.

If the grounding came from an inspection, the cleaner route is to sign that inspection off:
the aircraft returns to service on its own. See
[Sign off a completed inspection](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/maintenance/sign-off-an-inspection).

> **Note:** If the aircraft is not grounded and the booking is still refused, the reason is somewhere
> else: a conflict, a rule about who may book what, or your own approvals. See
> [Why was my booking refused?](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/why-was-my-booking-refused)