Narrative:

As a maintenance coordinator; I am responsible for a safe and reliable aircraft. I communicate with amt's and flight crews. Problems that arise in flight are dealt with keeping safety in mind at all times. Working on the ETOPS desk; we have a more conservative mind set as issues with ETOPS are critical to flight. One of my flights contacted me via ACARS informing me of the following: seemed to have lost power to the right radio panel. Also unable to use voice on center radio?. There was a slight bit of confusion of what was lost at first. After doing some preliminary troubleshooting and asking more questions; I learned that what was actually inoperative was the first officer's audio control panel. Along with the audio control panel being inoperative; the right VHF radio was also unusable along with the center VHF just having data capability and no voice transmissions. This left the crew with just the use of the left VHF to communicate with ATC. After a few circuit breaker resets; crew called via satcom. We (dispatcher and I) had to hold while crew was talking to ATC on left VHF. Crew was worried about entering cuban airspace with only one radio. I inquired if the crew had any tools. There was no objection; and the crew got a butter knife from the galley. The crewmember wanted to swap the audio control panels between the first officer and observer positions. I advised against this. I wanted to determine the condition of the connector. The crew proceeded to unlock the right audio control panel from the center pedestal. They checked the connector for security and even unplugged and reconnected it. I did have the circuit breakers pulled for the panel so there was no chance of any danger to the crew or equipment. After checking the security of the connector; I wanted to have the crew disconnect the panel. My thought was that something within the panel was causing the right VHF to be locked up. That was no help and still only had the left VHF for use. The crew again suggested we swap panels from the first officer to the observer position. I gave them the go ahead with more circuit breakers to pull before disconnecting the observer panel. Swapping panels did not help. After running out of options and on the edge of cuban airspace; we (dispatcher; crew; and I) concurred to return to ZZZ. While returning; the crew was unable to use the headphone on the captains side for cabin interphone. They were able to use the pedestal handset. No further problems were reported and the flight landed safely. At no time was there a safety issue to the crew or the flight. The willingness of the crew was above and beyond. If the crew did not feel comfortable to perform any procedure; they did not mention or show it. There were eager to do what was safe in order to continue the flight. My only fear was that we might loose the last remaining VHF radio and then communication with ATC would prove difficult and stressful. Throughout the procedures; I was under the impression it was a 3 man crew. They talked about stretching the headphone from the observer's position to the first officer; but I did not feel that would be safe or an option for safe flight. Looking back at the event; after trying circuit breaker resets and unable to recover another VHF radio; the decision to return should have been made sooner.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Maintenance Coordinator describes an airborne attempt by a B767 flight crew to swap audio panels under the coordinators direction. Attempt is unsuccessful and flight returned to their departure airport.

Narrative: As a Maintenance Coordinator; I am responsible for a safe and reliable aircraft. I communicate with AMT's and flight crews. Problems that arise in flight are dealt with keeping safety in mind at all times. Working on the ETOPS desk; we have a more conservative mind set as issues with ETOPS are critical to flight. One of my flights contacted me via ACARS informing me of the following: Seemed to have lost power to the right radio panel. Also unable to use voice on center radio?. There was a slight bit of confusion of what was lost at first. After doing some preliminary troubleshooting and asking more questions; I learned that what was actually inoperative was the First Officer's audio control panel. Along with the audio control panel being inoperative; the right VHF radio was also unusable along with the center VHF just having data capability and no voice transmissions. This left the crew with just the use of the left VHF to communicate with ATC. After a few circuit breaker resets; crew called via SATCOM. We (Dispatcher and I) had to hold while crew was talking to ATC on left VHF. Crew was worried about entering Cuban airspace with only one radio. I inquired if the crew had any tools. There was no objection; and the crew got a butter knife from the galley. The crewmember wanted to swap the audio control panels between the First Officer and Observer positions. I advised against this. I wanted to determine the condition of the connector. The crew proceeded to unlock the right audio control panel from the center pedestal. They checked the connector for security and even unplugged and reconnected it. I did have the circuit breakers pulled for the panel so there was no chance of any danger to the crew or equipment. After checking the security of the connector; I wanted to have the crew disconnect the panel. My thought was that something within the panel was causing the right VHF to be locked up. That was no help and still only had the left VHF for use. The crew again suggested we swap panels from the First Officer to the Observer position. I gave them the go ahead with more circuit breakers to pull before disconnecting the Observer panel. Swapping panels did not help. After running out of options and on the edge of Cuban airspace; we (dispatcher; crew; and I) concurred to return to ZZZ. While returning; the crew was unable to use the headphone on the Captains side for cabin interphone. They were able to use the pedestal handset. No further problems were reported and the flight landed safely. At no time was there a safety issue to the crew or the flight. The willingness of the crew was above and beyond. If the crew did not feel comfortable to perform any procedure; they did not mention or show it. There were eager to do what was safe in order to continue the flight. My only fear was that we might loose the last remaining VHF radio and then communication with ATC would prove difficult and stressful. Throughout the procedures; I was under the impression it was a 3 man crew. They talked about stretching the headphone from the observer's position to the First Officer; but I did not feel that would be safe or an option for safe flight. Looking back at the event; after trying circuit breaker resets and unable to recover another VHF radio; the decision to return should have been made sooner.

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.