EMB505 captain discovers damage to the main cabin door on post flight; and makes a logbook entry for...

Narrative:

On post flight; found damage to airstair door (main cabin door). Contacted maintenance to get disposition of squawk. Maintenance attempted to tell me that the airstair door was a 'panel' and that the EMB505 MEL/nef provided relief to defer any 'panel' in the aircraft; [MEL] 25-00-00. After discussing with my other crew member; we did not agree that this item was a 'panel'; nor did the FAA intend our company to decide any item on the aircraft was panel and a relief was provided to defer maintenance. Picture was provided to maintenance documenting the damage noted by crew on post flight. Maintenance furthermore provided the following in our company maintenance activity log provided to crews: 'main airstair door upper cowling around snubber area is damaged. 2 areas cracked and damaged (crew refused nef relief).' we as a crew took this to be pilot pushing; giving the impression to others that our maintenance write-up was not valid. I have seen a pattern of maintenance pushback in the past 6-9 months; where nearly every write-up is disputed and pressure applied to fly the aircraft. Maintenance should not be pushing pilots to fly broken aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB505 Captain discovers damage to the main cabin door on post flight; and makes a logbook entry for maintenance. Maintenance attempts to defer the airstair door as a 'panel;' stating that the EMB505 MEL/NEF provided relief to defer ANY 'panel' in the aircraft. The crew does not agree.

Narrative: On post flight; found damage to airstair door (main cabin door). Contacted maintenance to get disposition of squawk. Maintenance attempted to tell me that the airstair door was a 'panel' and that the EMB505 MEL/NEF provided relief to defer ANY 'panel' in the aircraft; [MEL] 25-00-00. After discussing with my other crew member; we did not agree that this item was a 'panel'; nor did the FAA intend our company to decide any item on the aircraft was panel and a relief was provided to defer maintenance. Picture was provided to maintenance documenting the damage noted by crew on post flight. Maintenance furthermore provided the following in our company maintenance activity log provided to crews: 'Main airstair door upper cowling around snubber area is damaged. 2 areas cracked and damaged (crew refused NEF relief).' We as a crew took this to be pilot pushing; giving the impression to others that our maintenance write-up was not valid. I have seen a pattern of maintenance pushback in the past 6-9 months; where nearly every write-up is disputed and pressure applied to fly the aircraft. Maintenance should not be pushing pilots to fly broken aircraft.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1203903
Time
Date	201409
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	OMA.Airport
State Reference	NE
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Embraer Legacy 450/500
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Parked
Component
Aircraft Component	Exterior Pax/Crew Door
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

EMB505 captain discovers damage to the main cabin door on post flight; and makes a logbook entry for maintenance. Maintenance attempts to defer the airstair door as a 'panel;' stating that the EMB505 MEL/nef provided relief to defer any 'panel' in the aircraft. The crew does not agree.