Narrative:

Just as I was about to step off the plane and conduct a post flight walk around for my first officer; the a flight attendant stopped a deplaning passenger from exiting as the jet bridge moved erratically downward. The gate agent then proceeded to reposition the jet bridge. The a flight attendant partially closed the forward door until we were given the all safe indication from the gate agent. As we waited the a flight attendant informed me they had a similar issue the prior day that took 35 minutes to finish deplaning because of a malfunctioning auto leveler. I decided to start the APU as we waited. I disconnected power and turned on the air conditioning. I also called on the radio to ops to inform them of the malfunction. I asked they send a mechanic out to help fix the jet bridge. As we were waiting I saw the captain who was waiting at the end of the jet bridge go down below and conduct a pre-flight inspection. Once the jet bridge was in place we continued deplaning without any issues. I told the out going captain the only issue we had was the jet bridge malfunction. I did not complete a second walk around.the jet bridge issue was not fixed from a earlier issue from the second hand knowledge I obtained. I should have requested an inspection regardless of hearing or seeing any damage done by the jet bridge. I assumed the departing captain at the end of the jet bridge would have seen any contact with the jet bridge and told me as I was leaving.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight Crew reported jet bridge malfunction caused damage to aircraft that was not reported or logged; resulting in a return to departure airport.

Narrative: Just as I was about to step off the plane and conduct a post flight walk around for my First Officer; the A Flight Attendant stopped a deplaning passenger from exiting as the jet bridge moved erratically downward. The gate agent then proceeded to reposition the jet bridge. The A Flight Attendant partially closed the forward door until we were given the all safe indication from the gate agent. As we waited the A Flight Attendant informed me they had a similar issue the prior day that took 35 minutes to finish deplaning because of a malfunctioning auto leveler. I decided to start the APU as we waited. I disconnected power and turned on the air conditioning. I also called on the radio to ops to inform them of the malfunction. I asked they send a mechanic out to help fix the jet bridge. As we were waiting I saw the Captain who was waiting at the end of the jet bridge go down below and conduct a pre-flight inspection. Once the jet bridge was in place we continued deplaning without any issues. I told the out going Captain the only issue we had was the jet bridge malfunction. I did not complete a second walk around.The jet bridge issue was not fixed from a earlier issue from the second hand knowledge I obtained. I should have requested an inspection regardless of hearing or seeing any damage done by the jet bridge. I assumed the departing Captain at the end of the jet bridge would have seen any contact with the jet bridge and told me as I was leaving.

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.