Narrative:

I agreed to do this working to find the cause of the aircraft malfunction. The time line will include pre-flight till block-in. 1. Pre-flight. We showed up at aircraft; APU on with adirus aligned. I turned off system and started new alignment. This is normal for maintenance. The jetway was at aircraft; but no power. While aircraft was at gate jetway lost power. I do not know if aircraft lost external power or maintenance started APU before jetway died. 2. Push back and startup normal procedures; only thing to note is when engine generators came on line; a very hard transfer from APU to engine generators. Any bus driver knows what I am talking about. You hear it in the radio and see it in the screens. I have been told used to be common; now is rare enough that it catches one's attention. 3. Taxi out normal. 4. Takeoff normal; not a rabbit but at that weight normal. 5. Passing approx 3000 ft; I called for managed speed. First officer pushed in button. Nothing happened. At this time we were in climb power and probably 7-8 degrees nose high; no bank. He tried to set 250 by pulling; the flight control unit did not accept input. I tried to put on autopilot; did not accept this. Passing 5000 ft. Left generator went off line; all left screens went black. First officer said his had diagonal line through his for a moment then his went black. 6. Our indications were no screens; no lights. Looked like walking into a simulator with no power or batteries on. During this time radios stopped; we had a bump of pressurization; felt in the ears; and only light was the moon. I have been asked by several people; what ecams did we run? None at first. We did not have any. The RAT did not deploy; we had 0 screens. 7. Our actions were first instinct; need power. First officer started APU. While that was starting right generator came back on line. I guess was 10-15 seconds from start of this. To be honest; my guess of time probably is not accurate. We were not timing it. 8. When right generator came back on line; it was like a ground start-up with cold aircraft. All the computers went through their test mode. When the flight computers came on line; the plane would move or jerk slightly. After a period of time 1-2 minutes the ECAM was clearing itself till all that was left was generator 1; facility #1 and auto-throttle thrust lock. The last could be expected. We reset generator one; reset normally. Facility 1 would not reset and I could not get auto-throttles to clear or work so I used manual throttles till block in. 9. We declared emergency during step 8. ATC clearance down wind then cleared us a visual. I boxed the approach; did not want a steep decent or bank in this aircraft. Landed around 166K; overweight. Landing was smooth with normal sink weight. We taxied in and gave aircraft to maintenance. My impression; we lost all power; the generators went off line and for some reason the RAT did not deploy. I can't explain why everything went dark from all screens to lights. If it took electricity to work; it stopped working. I can't explain why number two generator came back on line. In 28 years of flying and 20k hours; this is the first time I can say I do not know what happened in an aircraft. I pride myself on my knowledge and systems; yet I can't explain why for a period of seconds to a minute I was out of electrical power on a plane like an airbus.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 with an unmodified electrical system; lost complete electrical in flight after generator 1 failed. An emergency was declared as electrical power restored itself and the flight crew returned the aircraft for an overweight landing.

Narrative: I agreed to do this working to find the cause of the aircraft malfunction. The time line will include pre-flight till block-in. 1. Pre-flight. We showed up at aircraft; APU on with ADIRUs aligned. I turned off system and started new alignment. This is normal for maintenance. The jetway was at aircraft; but no power. While aircraft was at gate jetway lost power. I do not know if aircraft lost external power or maintenance started APU before jetway died. 2. Push back and startup normal procedures; only thing to note is when engine generators came on line; a very hard transfer from APU to engine generators. Any bus driver knows what I am talking about. You hear it in the radio and see it in the screens. I have been told used to be common; now is rare enough that it catches one's attention. 3. Taxi out normal. 4. Takeoff normal; not a rabbit but at that weight normal. 5. Passing approx 3000 FT; I called for managed speed. First Officer pushed in button. Nothing happened. At this time we were in climb power and probably 7-8 degrees nose high; no bank. He tried to set 250 by pulling; the flight control unit did not accept input. I tried to put on autopilot; did not accept this. Passing 5000 FT. Left generator went off line; all left screens went black. First Officer said his had diagonal line through his for a moment then his went black. 6. Our indications were no screens; no lights. Looked like walking into a simulator with no power or batteries on. During this time radios stopped; we had a bump of pressurization; felt in the ears; and only light was the moon. I have been asked by several people; what ECAMs did we run? None at first. WE DID NOT HAVE ANY. The RAT did not deploy; we had 0 screens. 7. Our actions were first instinct; need power. First Officer started APU. While that was starting right generator came back on line. I guess was 10-15 seconds from start of this. To be honest; my guess of time probably is not accurate. We were not timing it. 8. When right generator came back on line; it was like a ground start-up with cold aircraft. All the computers went through their test mode. When the flight computers came on line; the plane would move or jerk slightly. After a period of time 1-2 minutes the ECAM was clearing itself till all that was left was Generator 1; FAC #1 and auto-throttle thrust lock. The last could be expected. We reset generator one; reset normally. FAC 1 would not reset and I could not get auto-throttles to clear or work so I used manual throttles till block in. 9. We declared emergency during step 8. ATC clearance down wind then cleared us a visual. I boxed the approach; did not want a steep decent or bank in this aircraft. Landed around 166K; overweight. Landing was smooth with normal sink weight. We taxied in and gave aircraft to maintenance. My impression; we lost all power; the generators went off line and for some reason the RAT did not deploy. I can't explain why everything went dark from all screens to lights. If it took electricity to work; it stopped working. I can't explain why number two generator came back on line. In 28 years of flying and 20k hours; this is the first time I can say I do not know what happened in an aircraft. I pride myself on my knowledge and systems; yet I can't explain why for a period of seconds to a minute I was out of electrical power on a plane like an AIRBUS.

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.