Narrative:

I was made aware of an incident regarding an aircraft I was involved in for removal and installation of an aircraft elevator. During the aircraft visit I was the technician providing maintenance to our customer's aircraft. The work involved required dis-assembly and re-assembly of various consumable parts on the elevator. During a high speed descent; a flight crew reported to their airline a flutter or tail vibration. Upon further investigation of the customer airline; it was discovered one or more elevator servo-control bushings were not installed. It is possible I may have inadvertently left the bushing or bushings out upon re-assembly. It is also possible another technician completed the assembly and I signed behind the technician that actually performed the work; as is commonplace here. The procedure did not require; at the time; an rii inspection during the assembly process for this flight control. This may have assisted in identifying any missing parts if an rii inspection was mandated for this primary flight control.the procedure at the time of maintenance was a task card assigned by the customer and was a one line sign-off item. However; the task required printing out approximately several dozen pages of the aircraft maintenance manual (amm) to remove and install the associated elevator. A breakdown of the work into various steps with interval required rii inspections may have prevented this incident from occurring. Our company carries a shift turnover report; to assist in logging information when it cannot be completed during the same shift. The shift turnover also does not dictate a required rii inspection. Other contributing factors may have been that at this juncture I was working possibly 12-hour shifts and that I was also involved in working on other assigned tasks. When returning to this task; I may have inadvertently skipped that step. As it is; I should have determined the bushing or bushings were not installed during the assembly process as I am the responsible technician that signed for the work.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Contract Repair Station Technician and an Inspector were informed that the flight crew of a customer airline's A320 aircraft had reported a flutter/tail vibration during a high-speed descent. Bushings for the Elevator Power Control Unit (PCU) rod ends were missing at the PCU attachments to the Elevator.

Narrative: I was made aware of an incident regarding an aircraft I was involved in for removal and installation of an aircraft elevator. During the aircraft visit I was the Technician providing maintenance to our Customer's aircraft. The work involved required dis-assembly and re-assembly of various consumable parts on the elevator. During a high speed descent; a flight crew reported to their airline a flutter or tail vibration. Upon further investigation of the customer airline; it was discovered one or more Elevator Servo-Control bushings were not installed. It is possible I may have inadvertently left the bushing or bushings out upon re-assembly. It is also possible another Technician completed the assembly and I signed behind the Technician that actually performed the work; as is commonplace here. The procedure did not require; at the time; an RII Inspection during the assembly process for this flight control. This may have assisted in identifying any missing parts if an RII inspection was mandated for this primary flight control.The procedure at the time of maintenance was a task card assigned by the customer and was a one line sign-off item. However; the task required printing out approximately several dozen pages of the Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM) to remove and install the associated elevator. A breakdown of the work into various steps with interval required RII inspections may have prevented this incident from occurring. Our company carries a Shift Turnover Report; to assist in logging information when it cannot be completed during the same shift. The shift turnover also does not dictate a required RII Inspection. Other contributing factors may have been that at this juncture I was working possibly 12-hour shifts and that I was also involved in working on other assigned tasks. When returning to this task; I may have inadvertently skipped that step. As it is; I should have determined the bushing or bushings were not installed during the assembly process as I am the responsible Technician that signed for the work.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.