A fuel tank technician reports about finding their left and right fuel tank; wing venting air blower...

Narrative:

At approximately xa:30pm; I went to the hangar; an A320 aircraft; to make sure that the fuel tank venting equipment was setup and operating. When I got there the blower for the right-hand side main fuel tank was not operating and the blower on the left-hand main was operating at a low level. I made sure that both sides were venting and informed the shift supervisor in the hangar that they had been unhooked. After approximately 20-minutes; I returned to start sumping the main tanks with other members of the fuel crew to find the right hand blower was unplugged from the air source and not operating. I asked several mechanics on the hangar floor if they had knowledge of why the blowers air source had been unplugged and they did not. At that time; I told the supervisor to please brief his maintenance crew and inform them that the fuel crew needs to purge the tanks for entry. I again made sure that the blowers were operating properly and we left until after break. After break we returned again and now the blower for the left main tank was not operating. This is an unsafe practice and can not be tolerated.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Fuel Tank Technician reports about finding their left and right fuel tank; wing venting air blowers had been unplugged from an A320 aircraft in their company Hangar; creating an unsafe work environment.

Narrative: At approximately XA:30pm; I went to the Hangar; an A320 aircraft; to make sure that the Fuel Tank Venting equipment was setup and operating. When I got there the blower for the right-hand side Main Fuel Tank was not operating and the blower on the left-hand main was operating at a low level. I made sure that both sides were venting and informed the Shift Supervisor in the Hangar that they had been unhooked. After approximately 20-minutes; I returned to start sumping the main tanks with other members of the fuel crew to find the right hand blower was unplugged from the air source and not operating. I asked several mechanics on the Hangar floor if they had knowledge of why the blowers air source had been unplugged and they did not. At that time; I told the Supervisor to please brief his Maintenance crew and inform them that the fuel crew needs to purge the tanks for entry. I again made sure that the blowers were operating properly and we left until after break. After break we returned again and now the blower for the left main tank was not operating. This is an unsafe practice and can not be tolerated.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1003319
Time
Date	201204
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Tank
Person 1
Function	Technician
Qualification	Maintenance Airframe Maintenance Powerplant
Experience	Maintenance Technician 23
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A fuel tank technician reports about finding their left and right fuel tank; wing venting air blowers had been unplugged from an A320 aircraft in their company hangar; creating an unsafe work environment.