Narrative:

Had problem at gate when turning on brake fans tripped circuit breaker. We were parked at the gate with the side of the aircraft fairly close to the terminal building. While maintenance was troubleshooting; they pushed in the circuit breaker and pushed the brake fan button. Simultaneously there was a large flash that looked like a flash of lightning on the terminal as it was illuminated by the flash. Maintenance evaluated it for about 1/2 hour. We were quite reluctant to take the aircraft; but after a lengthy discussion the mechanics; we were cautiously optimistic that they were correct and that by pulling both brake fan cbs that no power was going to that area. I was concerned that other systems could have been affected by the arcing of the short. They ran some byte tests and they said things looked normal. After gear retraction we got an auto brakes ECAM and a brake released ECAM message. We did the ECAM and wrote to dispatch to advise them and evaluate what the message meant exactly. He spoke to maintenance and wrote back to us and said the number 1 brake was now inop and that 2; 3 & 4 were normal. Dispatch asked us to divert as our destination wouldn't have the necessary parts. The first officer and I decided that we should declare an emergency as we were uncertain as to whether or not there might be some unforeseen braking problems as there was obviously more damage than anyone realized. We advised ATC; flight attendants and passengers of our diversion and that although we anticipated a normal landing that they would see emergency vehicles after we landed. We landed uneventfully and the vehicles followed us to the gate. Once again we declared the emergency because we felt that the braking system was partially compromised and for the slight possibility of additional problems.maintenance should have dealt with the problem initially or done an aircraft swap. I should have stuck with my gut instinct that there was more to the problem than what they thought.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain describes a short circuit in the number one brake fan that causes the circuit breaker to trip and a large arc when Maintenance attempts to troubleshoot. The fan is deferred but when the gear is retracted after takeoff an AutoBrakes and a BRAKE RELEASED ECAM message is displayed. The crew is directed to divert to a suitable airport for repairs.

Narrative: Had problem at gate when turning on Brake Fans tripped CB. We were parked at the gate with the side of the aircraft fairly close to the terminal building. While maintenance was troubleshooting; they pushed in the CB and pushed the Brake Fan button. Simultaneously there was a large flash that looked like a flash of lightning on the terminal as it was illuminated by the flash. Maintenance evaluated it for about 1/2 hour. We were quite reluctant to take the aircraft; but after a lengthy discussion the mechanics; we were cautiously optimistic that they were correct and that by pulling both Brake Fan CBs that no power was going to that area. I was concerned that other systems could have been affected by the arcing of the short. They ran some byte tests and they said things looked normal. After gear retraction we got an Auto Brakes ECAM and a BRAKE RELEASED ECAM message. We did the ECAM and wrote to dispatch to advise them and evaluate what the message meant exactly. He spoke to maintenance and wrote back to us and said the Number 1 brake was now inop and that 2; 3 & 4 were normal. Dispatch asked us to divert as our destination wouldn't have the necessary parts. The FO and I decided that we should declare an emergency as we were uncertain as to whether or not there might be some unforeseen braking problems as there was obviously more damage than anyone realized. We advised ATC; Flight Attendants and passengers of our diversion and that although we anticipated a normal landing that they would see Emergency Vehicles after we landed. We landed uneventfully and the Vehicles followed us to the gate. Once again we declared the emergency because we felt that the braking system was partially compromised and for the slight possibility of additional problems.Maintenance should have dealt with the problem initially or done an aircraft swap. I should have stuck with my gut instinct that there was more to the problem than what they thought.

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.