Narrative:

Captain flying; cleared for a visual approach. We were on a left base at flaps 1. While turning final outside of the final approach fix; captain is slowing and calls for gear down and flaps 2. After I move the flap lever to the flaps 2 position; we get a F/control flaps locked-alignment fault ECAM on the upper ECAM. Following the ECAM; I tried to raise the flaps back to flaps 1. The ECAM remained and the flaps were locked. The captain and I agreed that we needed to break off the approach. I told the tower controller that we had a flight control problem and needed to break off the approach. He gave us a heading to fly and gave us an altitude of 6;000. I told him we needed to go hold while we worked through the problem. Captain remained in control of the airplane and took ATC while I got the flight manual out and I work through the procedures of the ECAM. After determining our landing configuration; approach speed; and landing distance I got a patch to maintenance control to get any additional input. Maintenance control said follow the flight manual procedures. At this point the captain reviewed the landing chart in the maneuvers section with abnormal flaps. We were now ready to return to land. This took about 10-15 minutes. I advised ATC that we are declaring an emergency and would like to return to runaway xxr and we would like the emergency equipment standing by. The captain made a very nice approach and landing on runway xxr. The captain made several PA's to the passengers throughout this event and the flight attendants did a cabin advisory. After landing on runway xxr; we exited and set the brakes. The emergency folks inspected the airplane and we were cleared to taxi to gate.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 crew reported an ECAM alerting F/CTL Flaps Locked-Alignment Fault. After following ECAM and Flight Manual procedures; an emergency was declare and the Captain landed on the longest available runway.

Narrative: Captain flying; cleared for a visual approach. We were on a left base at flaps 1. While turning final outside of the final approach fix; Captain is slowing and calls for gear down and flaps 2. After I move the flap lever to the flaps 2 position; we get a F/CTL Flaps Locked-Alignment Fault ECAM on the upper ECAM. Following the ECAM; I tried to raise the flaps back to flaps 1. The ECAM remained and the flaps were locked. The Captain and I agreed that we needed to break off the approach. I told the Tower Controller that we had a flight control problem and needed to break off the approach. He gave us a heading to fly and gave us an altitude of 6;000. I told him we needed to go hold while we worked through the problem. Captain remained in control of the airplane and took ATC while I got the Flight Manual out and I work through the procedures of the ECAM. After determining our landing configuration; approach speed; and landing distance I got a patch to Maintenance Control to get any additional input. Maintenance Control said follow the flight manual procedures. At this point the Captain reviewed the landing chart in the maneuvers section with abnormal flaps. We were now ready to return to land. This took about 10-15 minutes. I advised ATC that we are declaring an Emergency and would like to return to Runaway XXR and we would like the emergency equipment standing by. The Captain made a very nice approach and landing on Runway XXR. The Captain made several PA's to the passengers throughout this event and the Flight Attendants did a cabin advisory. After landing on Runway XXR; we exited and set the brakes. The emergency folks inspected the airplane and we were cleared to taxi to gate.

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.