Narrative:

During our pushback; our ground crew reportedly damaged the aircraft external communications door panel; but they did not tell us about it. They then disconnected their communications cord and waved to us as they pulled away after our normal engine start; as required by our company procedures. They never said anything to us about what had occurred or what they had seen and we; therefore; had no way of knowing that anything was wrong; or that the aircraft had been damaged by them. But after letting us depart and became airborne; the station ops reportedly made a phone call to the company indicating that the aircraft may have been damaged during the pushback (we found this out later in the day).we did not know about the sustained damage until after we landed two hours later; when we were met by company maintenance personnel. They informed us that the aircraft was being taken out of service for structural damage. When I asked about what kind of structural damage they were referring to; they mentioned that our comm door panel had been reported as damaged by maintenance control to them and that they had been told to pull the aircraft out of service; and that's all they knew at that point. I told them that we were not aware of any damage to the aircraft; and did not incur any during flight; and certainly had not reported any to maintenance control; and that this was the first time that either of us had even been told of it. Our dispatcher later told me that they had not been notified of the damage either until we landed. So they had been kept out of the loop as well.first and foremost; it is imperative that ground personnel understand the risks and liability associated with not communicating aircraft damage they cause or see during ground operations to the flight crew. To not inform the flight crew that obvious damage had occurred; and let them take off in a fully loaded aircraft without even attempting to communicate the issue and acting as if nothing had occurred; and then later admitting their mistake to the company after the aircraft became airborne is just very concerning. In our case; if the comm panel door had separated from the fuselage; and subsequently ingested into our number 2 engine; we would have certainly had our hands full in dealing with a potential pending engine failure.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported that the flight crew was unaware of a damaged door panel caused by the ground crew at the previous station.

Narrative: During our pushback; our Ground Crew reportedly damaged the aircraft external communications door panel; but they did not tell us about it. They then disconnected their communications cord and waved to us as they pulled away after our normal engine start; as required by our Company procedures. They never said anything to us about what had occurred or what they had seen and we; therefore; had no way of knowing that anything was wrong; or that the aircraft had been damaged by them. But after letting us depart and became airborne; the Station Ops reportedly made a phone call to the Company indicating that the aircraft may have been damaged during the pushback (we found this out later in the day).We did not know about the sustained damage until after we landed two hours later; when we were met by Company Maintenance Personnel. They informed us that the aircraft was being taken out of service for structural damage. When I asked about what kind of structural damage they were referring to; they mentioned that our COMM door panel had been reported as damaged by Maintenance Control to them and that they had been told to pull the aircraft out of service; and that's all they knew at that point. I told them that we were not aware of any damage to the aircraft; and did not incur any during flight; and certainly had not reported any to Maintenance Control; and that this was the first time that either of us had even been told of it. Our Dispatcher later told me that they had not been notified of the damage either until we landed. So they had been kept out of the loop as well.First and foremost; it is imperative that Ground Personnel understand the risks and liability associated with not communicating aircraft damage they cause or see during ground operations to the flight crew. To not inform the flight crew that obvious damage had occurred; and let them take off in a fully loaded aircraft without even attempting to communicate the issue and acting as if nothing had occurred; and then later admitting their mistake to the Company after the aircraft became airborne is just very concerning. In our case; if the COMM panel door had separated from the fuselage; and subsequently ingested into our Number 2 engine; we would have certainly had our hands full in dealing with a potential pending engine failure.

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.