Narrative:

Received ACARS from captain about the MEL for the second 3 and if we needed a new release. I told him maintenance has not called so it must not affect performance. Captain responded that the second 3 causes the inboard spoilers to be inoperative. I looked up the MEL and saw it was for a second 3 fault light and told the captain this and that there were no penalties; so they departed. Enroute captain was still questioning the MEL. I told him unless he believed the wrong MEL is being used only the light was inoperative. He sent me a call me and asked for maintenance control. Got the patch going and talked with maintenance control controller who confirmed that the wrong MEL was being used; it should be 27-94-01; which is the second 3 inoperative. Told captain weather at destination was good; no runway closed and landing would not be a problem and would send the landing weights as soon as possible (as he was 20 minutes from destination). Sent a note for the land distance factor from the airbus flight manual and checked the runway limit weights. He was still structurally limited; I did not check the takeoff data; as he was airborne already. My relief for the morning shift was already here and signed in to sector; so I explained everything to him and left it in his hands.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain departed BOS with an MEL for SEC 3 fault light inop and discovered airborne that the actual fault is with SEC 3; which has performance considerations.

Narrative: Received ACARS from Captain about the MEL for the SEC 3 and if we needed a new release. I told him maintenance has not called so it must not affect performance. Captain responded that the SEC 3 causes the inboard spoilers to be inoperative. I looked up the MEL and saw it was for a SEC 3 fault light and told the Captain this and that there were no penalties; so they departed. Enroute Captain was still questioning the MEL. I told him unless he believed the wrong MEL is being used only the light was inoperative. He sent me a call me and asked for Maintenance Control. Got the patch going and talked with Maintenance Control controller who confirmed that the wrong MEL was being used; it should be 27-94-01; which is the SEC 3 inoperative. Told Captain weather at destination was good; no runway closed and landing would not be a problem and would send the landing weights as soon as possible (as he was 20 minutes from destination). Sent a note for the land distance factor from the Airbus flight manual and checked the runway limit weights. He was still structurally limited; I did not check the takeoff data; as he was airborne already. My relief for the morning shift was already here and signed in to sector; so I explained everything to him and left it in his hands.

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.