Narrative:

Arriving at aircraft; there were no open write-ups or deferrals. Flight attendants advised me of a taped overhead bin in rear of aircraft. Examining logbook; I found a previous write-up involving an overhead bin; but no current MEL stickers on logbook and nothing in the flight paperwork. I called dispatch and asked for a phone patch with a maintenance controller. Maintenance control said that the item had been cleared the prior day. I informed him about the taped bin; so he sent a mechanic out to investigate. I then realized that the taped bin was about 10 rows behind the bin that was previously written up; so perhaps it was a new issue; or perhaps the row number was incorrectly reported. The mechanic tried to fix; but didn't have the parts. There was some question about deferring as the taped bin was a small bin just forward of the larger bin that held emergency equipment (row 36DEF I believe); and when the large bin was open; there was access to the smaller bin; although the emergency equipment was partitioned off; and access was not hindered in any way. Maintenance was able to defer the bin. The lead flight attendant expressed concern about the deferral to me after the mechanic was off the plane and the entry door closed. I took the MEL (ipad) back to the bin with the lead flight attendant and we went over it together. The bin had a partition as was required in the MEL; and we (maintenance and the flight crew) did not have to move any emergency equipment. It seemed that all was in order.about an hour and a half into the flight; the lead flight attendant called the cockpit and said that she found the spare adult life vests in a cubby in the front of the airplane. They were supposed to be with the other emergency equipment in the bin; but with the taped bin closed; they would not fit. Apparently someone moved the life vests prior to any of our crew arriving at the airplane; and none of us caught that. Moving the life vests from that bin was in violation of the MEL deferral. I notified dispatch and advised them to contact maintenance control. Maintenance control agreed that it was incorrectly deferred and would address the issue upon arrival.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain was informed by a Flight Attendant of a taped overhead bin in the cabin with no corresponding maintenance deferral in the log book. A deferral was issued and the flight departed. In flight; it was discovered that the spare adult life vests that were in the bin had been moved to the front of the aircraft in violation of the MEL.

Narrative: Arriving at aircraft; there were no open write-ups or deferrals. Flight Attendants advised me of a taped overhead bin in rear of aircraft. Examining logbook; I found a previous write-up involving an overhead bin; but no current MEL stickers on logbook and nothing in the flight paperwork. I called Dispatch and asked for a phone patch with a Maintenance Controller. Maintenance Control said that the item had been cleared the prior day. I informed him about the taped bin; so he sent a mechanic out to investigate. I then realized that the taped bin was about 10 rows behind the bin that was previously written up; so perhaps it was a new issue; or perhaps the row number was incorrectly reported. The mechanic tried to fix; but didn't have the parts. There was some question about deferring as the taped bin was a small bin just forward of the larger bin that held emergency equipment (row 36DEF I believe); and when the large bin was open; there was access to the smaller bin; although the emergency equipment was partitioned off; and access was not hindered in any way. Maintenance was able to defer the bin. The lead flight attendant expressed concern about the deferral to me after the mechanic was off the plane and the entry door closed. I took the MEL (iPad) back to the bin with the lead flight attendant and we went over it together. The bin had a partition as was required in the MEL; and we (Maintenance and the flight crew) did not have to move any emergency equipment. It seemed that all was in order.About an hour and a half into the flight; the lead flight attendant called the cockpit and said that she found the spare adult life vests in a cubby in the front of the airplane. They were supposed to be with the other emergency equipment in the bin; but with the taped bin closed; they would not fit. Apparently someone moved the life vests prior to any of our crew arriving at the airplane; and none of us caught that. Moving the life vests from that bin was in violation of the MEL deferral. I notified Dispatch and advised them to contact Maintenance Control. Maintenance Control agreed that it was incorrectly deferred and would address the issue upon arrival.

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.