Narrative:

Upon arrival at the aircraft; I noticed that the circuit breaker for the recorder had been pulled; collared; and placarded deactivated. After finishing my originating checks; I rechecked the aircraft logbook and noted that the recorder was not deferred. Having flown an aircraft with the recorder deferred; I knew that it was an MEL item; so I checked the MEL book and; sure enough; the recorder was listed. Seeing as the recorder is listed in the MEL and that in its present state it was inoperative/deactivated; I called maintenance control to try and get the recorder MEL'ed. Upon talking with maintenance control; I was told that the recorders from the entire fleet were being deactivated by order of an engineering order. I asked to see a copy of said engineering order because I was unsure if an engineering order could supersede the requirements of the MEL. When the engineering order was brought to me I was unable to find anywhere in it where it stated that the MEL for the recorder was no longer valid/required. As such; I again requested that the item be MEL'ed but was denied by maintenance control and told I had to talk to my chief pilot about it. When the chief pilot called; I explained to him the situation and he hung up to discuss the situation with maintenance. After several minutes he called back and explained to me how maintenance said they would 'under no circumstance' MEL the recorder; and how we were flying aircraft with other deactivated items that were on the MEL but were not ever MEL'ed (example: aft potable water). He was very helpful and friendly (especially for such an early hour) and I was very appreciative of his assistance. With the chief pilot's example of other deactivated; yet not MEL'ed equipment; I decided we were ok to depart. However; I did not; and still do not; like the fact that we have an inoperative (deactivated makes something inoperative) piece of equipment on our aircraft that is listed in the MEL; yet we are flying around without it MEL'ed. The event occurred because the documentation in the MEL does not match that of the maintenance engineering order and/or other documents. I still fail to see where relief from the requirements of the MEL can be granted simply by an engineering order or by pulling the breaker of a piece of equipment. If it isn't working (no matter how it got that way) it is inoperative. Amend the MEL to remove items like the recorder; which apparently are not necessary; to eliminate any confusion. Provide better guidance for flight crews in the form of actual documentation that states the MEL can be superseded by company orders either through the preamble of the MEL book or through the engineering order itself.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-700 Captain raises concerns about his carrier's maintenance control authorizing the deactivation of various aircraft equipment listed in their MEL's; but not actually MEL'd as deactivated equipment.

Narrative: Upon arrival at the aircraft; I noticed that the CB for the recorder had been pulled; collared; and placarded deactivated. After finishing my originating checks; I rechecked the aircraft logbook and noted that the recorder was not deferred. Having flown an aircraft with the recorder deferred; I knew that it was an MEL item; so I checked the MEL book and; sure enough; the recorder was listed. Seeing as the recorder is listed in the MEL and that in its present state it was inoperative/deactivated; I called maintenance control to try and get the recorder MEL'ed. Upon talking with maintenance control; I was told that the recorders from the entire fleet were being deactivated by order of an Engineering Order. I asked to see a copy of said Engineering Order because I was unsure if an engineering order could supersede the requirements of the MEL. When the engineering order was brought to me I was unable to find anywhere in it where it stated that the MEL for the recorder was no longer valid/required. As such; I again requested that the item be MEL'ed but was denied by maintenance control and told I had to talk to my Chief Pilot about it. When the Chief Pilot called; I explained to him the situation and he hung up to discuss the situation with maintenance. After several minutes he called back and explained to me how maintenance said they would 'under no circumstance' MEL the recorder; and how we were flying aircraft with other deactivated items that were on the MEL but were not ever MEL'ed (example: aft potable water). He was very helpful and friendly (especially for such an early hour) and I was very appreciative of his assistance. With the Chief Pilot's example of other deactivated; yet not MEL'ed equipment; I decided we were OK to depart. However; I did not; and still do not; like the fact that we have an inoperative (deactivated makes something inoperative) piece of equipment on our aircraft that is listed in the MEL; yet we are flying around without it MEL'ed. The event occurred because the documentation in the MEL does not match that of the maintenance Engineering Order and/or other documents. I still fail to see where relief from the requirements of the MEL can be granted simply by an engineering order or by pulling the breaker of a piece of equipment. If it isn't working (no matter how it got that way) it is inoperative. Amend the MEL to remove items like the recorder; which apparently are not necessary; to eliminate any confusion. Provide better guidance for flight crews in the form of actual documentation that states the MEL can be superseded by company orders either through the preamble of the MEL book or through the engineering order itself.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.