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An A320 captain refused an aircraft when a section of the inlet cowl acoustical material was found loose after the same section was temporarily repaired prior to the previous flight.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1015868 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201206 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | FO |
| Environment | |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | A320 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Parked |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Cowling |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 260 Flight Crew Total 16000 Flight Crew Type 2900 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
My first officer did a walk around on the aircraft and found landing gear door seal missing a two inch chunk and the right engine had a six inch chunk of honeycomb missing just outside the fan blades. The captain went out to look at the engine saw it was part of a repair to the acoustical material just in front of the fan blades and at the bottom inside of the cowl. The repair was approximately six inches wide and two inches deep. I called maintenance after approximately 1.5 hours to find out the status of the aircraft and was told the aircraft was fixed. I asked about the engine and was told everything was ok and it was on a twenty cycle deferral. We flew the aircraft and on the next walk around the first officer noticed the repair patch was disintegrating. I inspected the repair and saw a piece was about to come off and go into the engine. I talked with maintenance control and they told me the missing pieces of acoustic lining are within tolerance; but they failed to address my concern of the loose pieces of the patch coming off and going into the engine. I refused to fly the aircraft back in its current state. I do not understand why the integrity of the repair patch was not inspected when a small part of it was missing before the previous departure.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: An A320 Captain refused an aircraft when a section of the inlet cowl acoustical material was found loose after the same section was temporarily repaired prior to the previous flight.
Narrative: My First Officer did a walk around on the aircraft and found landing gear door seal missing a two inch chunk and the right engine had a six inch chunk of honeycomb missing just outside the fan blades. The Captain went out to look at the engine saw it was part of a repair to the acoustical material just in front of the fan blades and at the bottom inside of the cowl. The repair was approximately six inches wide and two inches deep. I called Maintenance after approximately 1.5 hours to find out the status of the aircraft and was told the aircraft was fixed. I asked about the engine and was told everything was OK and it was on a twenty cycle deferral. We flew the aircraft and on the next walk around the First Officer noticed the repair patch was disintegrating. I inspected the repair and saw a piece was about to come off and go into the engine. I talked with Maintenance Control and they told me the missing pieces of acoustic lining are within tolerance; but they failed to address my concern of the loose pieces of the patch coming off and going into the engine. I refused to fly the aircraft back in its current state. I do not understand why the integrity of the repair patch was not inspected when a small part of it was missing before the previous departure.
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.