Narrative:

Upon arrival at aircraft reviewed maintenance log book and MEL. Maintenance log book write up for left hand CSD; placard for left hand generator installed. Current MEL applies to specific aircraft tails numbers; our aircraft was not one of them. I could find no other appropriate MEL for our aircraft; and did not believe we were paper legal. Called maintenance; they confirmed MEL item did not fit our aircraft and called maintenance control. While waiting called chief pilot for clarification who referred us to dispatch. Dispatch was aware of the placard and we agreed on date of current MEL. However; dispatch did not realize our tail number did not fall in the range of that specified in the MEL. Maintenance control said that a 'clarification of the MEL book' was issued expanding the range of tail numbers to include ours. I requested a copy of this document for the log book and gate departure was delayed further until it arrived. Flight uneventful and arrived 4 minutes after scheduled arrival. Questions: is it legal to takeoff with verbal approval from a chief pilot; maintenance; or maintenance control without the pilots having proper documentation on board to prove their legality (should an FAA inspector be on the next leg)? Should pilots not have access to the MEL of these hidden clarifications? Or a new MEL published; it's over 2 years old. Also; concern was expressed over the many modifications made to aircraft and that this could have possibly been an aircraft not approved to have a generator out. In addition; this lacking paperwork problem could be duplicated every crew swap causing unnecessary delays until the generator was repaired had we not requested the 'clarification of the MEL book' to be sent to us to be kept in the maintenance log.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A MD-80 pilot refused an aircraft during preflight because the MEL covering an inoperative engine generator did not appear to include the specific aircraft assigned to that flight.

Narrative: Upon arrival at aircraft reviewed Maintenance Log Book and MEL. Maintenance Log Book write up for left hand CSD; placard for left hand generator installed. Current MEL applies to specific aircraft tails numbers; our aircraft was not one of them. I could find no other appropriate MEL for our aircraft; and did not believe we were paper legal. Called maintenance; they confirmed MEL item did not fit our aircraft and called Maintenance Control. While waiting called Chief Pilot for clarification who referred us to Dispatch. Dispatch was aware of the placard and we agreed on date of current MEL. However; Dispatch did not realize our tail number did not fall in the range of that specified in the MEL. Maintenance Control said that a 'clarification of the MEL book' was issued expanding the range of tail numbers to include ours. I requested a copy of this document for the log book and gate departure was delayed further until it arrived. Flight uneventful and arrived 4 minutes after scheduled arrival. Questions: is it legal to takeoff with verbal approval from a Chief Pilot; Maintenance; or Maintenance Control without the pilots having proper documentation on board to prove their legality (should an FAA inspector be on the next leg)? Should pilots not have access to the MEL of these hidden clarifications? Or a new MEL published; it's over 2 years old. Also; concern was expressed over the many modifications made to aircraft and that this could have possibly been an aircraft not approved to have a generator out. In addition; this lacking paperwork problem could be duplicated every crew swap causing unnecessary delays until the generator was repaired had we not requested the 'clarification of the MEL book' to be sent to us to be kept in the Maintenance Log.

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.