B737 flight crew reported maintenance personnel seemed unclear about the implications of the low cha...

Narrative:

I arrived at aircraft to find the aircraft battery and emergency exit lights battery completely drained. I informed the gate agent and asked for maintenance to be called. I then called dispatch and asked for [maintenance]. The initial maintenance technician I spoke with said it would take just under two hours to get all the emergency light batteries charged after electrical power was reestablished before we could depart. Maintenance came; took a quick look; and said he would be back. Since the aircraft was dark the first officer and I went to get some coffee. When I returned to the aircraft about 15 - 20 minutes later; the aircraft cabin lights were on and the mechanic was signing the logbook. He informed me that he had replaced the aircraft battery and we were good to go. I then asked about the emergency exit light batteries and how long it would take for them to be fully charged. He said he turned them on to see if they worked and that was good enough. This contradicted what [maintenance] had said earlier; so I called [maintenance] again to confirm. At this point [maintenance] said that if the emergency exit lights turn on and work you we were good to go and that the batteries would charge in flight. This still concerned me because it was in conflict with what he had stated previously. At this point I called operations for guidance and he said that if maintenance says you are good then there is no reason to doubt them. I didn't feel this advice was helpful considering the discrepancies I had already encountered. The mechanic then returned to the plane and said the manual stated it takes 30-60 minutes for the emergency exit light batteries to charge so we should wait 30 minutes then we were good to depart. I asked him for a copy of that section of the manual; and when he returned with a copy he informed me that the manual stated it takes 90 minutes for the emergency exit lights to be fully charged and now [maintenance] says we needed to wait the full 90 minutes before we could depart. Despite the delay we encountered; I believe that these steps had to be taken in order to secure the safety of our passengers and my crew.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew reported Maintenance personnel seemed unclear about the implications of the low charge state of the emergency light system batteries.

Narrative: I arrived at aircraft to find the aircraft battery and emergency exit lights battery completely drained. I informed the gate agent and asked for maintenance to be called. I then called Dispatch and asked for [Maintenance]. The initial maintenance technician I spoke with said it would take just under two hours to get all the emergency light batteries charged after electrical power was reestablished before we could depart. Maintenance came; took a quick look; and said he would be back. Since the aircraft was dark the First Officer and I went to get some coffee. When I returned to the aircraft about 15 - 20 minutes later; the aircraft cabin lights were on and the mechanic was signing the logbook. He informed me that he had replaced the aircraft battery and we were good to go. I then asked about the emergency exit light batteries and how long it would take for them to be fully charged. He said he turned them on to see if they worked and that was good enough. This contradicted what [Maintenance] had said earlier; so I called [Maintenance] again to confirm. At this point [Maintenance] said that if the emergency exit lights turn on and work you we were good to go and that the batteries would charge in flight. This still concerned me because it was in conflict with what he had stated previously. At this point I called Operations for guidance and he said that if Maintenance says you are good then there is no reason to doubt them. I didn't feel this advice was helpful considering the discrepancies I had already encountered. The mechanic then returned to the plane and said the manual stated it takes 30-60 minutes for the emergency exit light batteries to charge so we should wait 30 minutes then we were good to depart. I asked him for a copy of that section of the manual; and when he returned with a copy he informed me that the manual stated it takes 90 minutes for the emergency exit lights to be fully charged and now [maintenance] says we needed to wait the full 90 minutes before we could depart. Despite the delay we encountered; I believe that these steps had to be taken in order to secure the safety of our passengers and my crew.

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	1369852
Time
Date	201607
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 1816
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 634
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

B737 flight crew reported maintenance personnel seemed unclear about the implications of the low charge state of the emergency light system batteries.