Narrative:

Right [gen] drive was MEL inoperative. ETOPS check and MEL checks had been verified in logbook for an international departure. Pilot preflight crew brief included discussion of APU failure enroute. We agreed that APU failure would lead to diversion to 'nearest suitable' airport per QRH. APU oil qty EICAS message occurred at approximately about two hours into the flight when captain was on rest break and called to cockpit. Checklist was verified accomplished. Coordination call to dispatch and maintenance control led to discussion of a recent replacement of an APU relay. Maintenance control raised the possibility of one restart attempt; which also seemed in agreement with the QRH allowing one restart attempt. Restart was unsuccessful and decision was made to divert to a domestic airport. A somewhat closer airport was considered but given time factors and proximity; the large domestic airport was preferred. We had no problems with diversion. In debriefing; the crew agreed that we benefited from pre-briefing an APU failure. In hindsight; I question whether I should have raised the point with maintenance control regarding dispatching this airplane on a fourth trans atlantic flight relying on continuous APU operation. Also; I believe I erred in attempting an APU restart given the oil quantity fault. Maintenance control's suggestion and reference to a prior repair as justification for a restart; plus some justification in the QRH was not sufficient given the risk of other complications. Repair efforts revealed a broken bushing as the cause for APU oil loss.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B767 was ETOPS dispatched with the R GEN DRIVE MEL'ed and had to divert after the EICAS alerted APU OIL QTY and autoshutdown.

Narrative: R [GEN] DRIVE was MEL inoperative. ETOPS check and MEL checks had been verified in logbook for an international departure. Pilot preflight crew brief included discussion of APU failure enroute. We agreed that APU failure would lead to diversion to 'nearest suitable' airport per QRH. APU OIL QTY EICAS message occurred at approximately about two hours into the flight when Captain was on rest break and called to cockpit. Checklist was verified accomplished. Coordination call to Dispatch and Maintenance Control led to discussion of a recent replacement of an APU relay. Maintenance Control raised the possibility of one restart attempt; which also seemed in agreement with the QRH allowing one restart attempt. Restart was unsuccessful and decision was made to divert to a domestic airport. A somewhat closer airport was considered but given time factors and proximity; the large domestic airport was preferred. We had no problems with diversion. In debriefing; the crew agreed that we benefited from pre-briefing an APU failure. In hindsight; I question whether I should have raised the point with Maintenance Control regarding dispatching this airplane on a fourth trans Atlantic flight relying on continuous APU operation. Also; I believe I erred in attempting an APU restart given the oil quantity fault. Maintenance Control's suggestion and reference to a prior repair as justification for a restart; plus some justification in the QRH was not sufficient given the risk of other complications. Repair efforts revealed a broken bushing as the cause for APU oil loss.

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.