Metro,
Sounds to me like a case of Fire,Ready,Aim! If it was you that was called in I woudn't be saying terminate him. I think maybe the details need to come out. It could be me on my next trip because I don't look at the clock to see when something breaks. If it breaks an hr. before departure or if it breaks one min. before door closure I write it up. Can't see changing the way I operate now. Had the PHL CP and assitant CP on a PHL PHX flight a couple of months back. I wasn't happy with the aircraft so we were late like 45 min. Only thing I heard from the CP was good job and thanks for the nice ride.
Regards,
Bob