Narrative:

I received a call from who I believed was the captain; presumably on his cell phone. He said something to the effect that he had contract mechanic there; who needed to talk to me. The phone was handed-off to the contract mechanic; who said that the item was not written up; but the captain wanted to make sure that they were good to go. The mechanic told me that there was a ding the size of half a thumbnail in a cargo door scuff plate. I looked at my nails and thought of my finger pressing into a piece of clay; and what size of a ding that would make. Since most of my recent experience is related to avionics; I put the phone on hold and asked all the controllers in the room at the time; if they thought that a thumbnail size ding would need to be written-up. We talked about this part being a scuff plate; with the intention to take abuse of cargo scraping its way into the pit; and all agreed that what was described did not need to be addressed with a write-up. I released the phone hold and told the mechanic that; if that was on the scuff plate; it was not significant and we were good to go. I believed the ding to be an insignificant 'normal wear and tear' item. The airplane left with no additional communication. Upon arrival; the damage was found to need maintenance and scheduled inspections. In retrospect; I should have asked the crew to write up the item; had mechanic forward pictures and evaluated the damage per the structural repair manual (srm).

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Maintenance Controller reports he allowed a B737-800 to continue in service with a 'ding' in the cargo pit entry scuff plate. Aircraft later required maintenance and scheduled inspections for the damaged scuff plate.

Narrative: I received a call from who I believed was the Captain; presumably on his cell phone. He said something to the effect that he had Contract Mechanic there; who needed to talk to me. The phone was handed-off to the Contract Mechanic; who said that the item was not written up; but the Captain wanted to make sure that they were good to go. The Mechanic told me that there was a ding the size of half a thumbnail in a cargo door scuff plate. I looked at my nails and thought of my finger pressing into a piece of clay; and what size of a ding that would make. Since most of my recent experience is related to avionics; I put the phone on hold and asked all the controllers in the room at the time; if they thought that a thumbnail size ding would need to be written-up. We talked about this part being a scuff plate; with the intention to take abuse of cargo scraping its way into the pit; and all agreed that what was described did not need to be addressed with a write-up. I released the phone hold and told the Mechanic that; if that was on the scuff plate; it was not significant and we were good to go. I believed the ding to be an insignificant 'normal wear and tear' item. The airplane left with no additional communication. Upon arrival; the damage was found to need maintenance and scheduled inspections. In retrospect; I should have asked the crew to write up the item; had Mechanic forward pictures and evaluated the damage per the structural repair manual (SRM).

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.