Narrative:

I pushed back from the gate and was about to have my aircraft deiced with the engines off and APU running. The APU shut down and the aircraft lost all a/C power. I tried an APU restart and received what looked like a hung start. As I was I stopping the APU start sequence; one of the ramp personnel signaled to me that he saw a momentary plume of fire from the back of the aircraft. Firefighters and policeman arrived promptly thereafter and it was established that there was no further signs of fire. When I examined the APU exhaust area; there were lots of fragments of fan blades on the ramp. I called maintenance control and informed them what had happened. There were already two maintenance personnel in the area from work they had been doing on the aircraft prior to my flight and the maintenance controller told me that he would send them back to the plane. I asked if there was a particular verbiage he would like in the discrepancy section of the aircraft maintenance log and was told that if I liked; the mechanics who were in the area could do the write up. I stayed with the plane and the mechanics arrived quickly; examined the APU; and completed the write up; putting in the discrepancy section; 'APU blew up throwing parts and pieces on ramp (needs a new APU).' although a mechanical irregularity was what prevented the flight from continuing; the issue is clarity about who should and is able to complete write-ups. I have been told by different sources that it should have been me to complete the write up and that it was correct to have the mechanics complete the aircraft maintenance log. There is not any specific guidance that I am aware of as to who should complete the write-up our pilot manuals outside of pg 5-6 in our MEL that says write-ups are to be completed in accordance with the fars but gives no indication what fars it is referring to. Provide clear guidance within our manuals as to whom should complete write-ups in all cases but specifically when the PIC observed the discrepancy but a mechanic is close at hand.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 First Officer reported the APU had an uncommanded shutdown and he didn't know whether he was required to write it up or have Maintenance make the write-up.

Narrative: I pushed back from the gate and was about to have my aircraft deiced with the engines off and APU running. The APU shut down and the aircraft lost all A/C power. I tried an APU restart and received what looked like a hung start. As I was I stopping the APU start sequence; one of the ramp personnel signaled to me that he saw a momentary plume of fire from the back of the aircraft. Firefighters and policeman arrived promptly thereafter and it was established that there was no further signs of fire. When I examined the APU exhaust area; there were lots of fragments of fan blades on the ramp. I called maintenance control and informed them what had happened. There were already two maintenance personnel in the area from work they had been doing on the aircraft prior to my flight and the maintenance controller told me that he would send them back to the plane. I asked if there was a particular verbiage he would like in the discrepancy section of the Aircraft Maintenance Log and was told that if I liked; the mechanics who were in the area could do the write up. I stayed with the plane and the mechanics arrived quickly; examined the APU; and completed the write up; putting in the discrepancy section; 'APU blew up throwing parts and pieces on ramp (needs a new APU).' Although a mechanical irregularity was what prevented the flight from continuing; the issue is clarity about who should and is able to complete write-ups. I have been told by different sources that it should have been me to complete the write up and that it was correct to have the mechanics complete the Aircraft Maintenance Log. There is not any specific guidance that I am aware of as to who should complete the write-up our pilot manuals outside of pg 5-6 in our MEL that says write-ups are to be completed in accordance with the FARs but gives no indication what FARs it is referring to. Provide clear guidance within our manuals as to whom should complete write-ups in all cases but specifically when the PIC observed the discrepancy but a mechanic is close at hand.

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.