Narrative:

While climbing through FL300 ECAM displayed a message and associated chime. By the time both pilots attention was brought to the ECAM screen the message had disappeared. Something in regard to ENG2 had been observed but the rest of the script disappeared too quickly to be read. A 'rcl' [recall] was attempted and the message could not be brought up. The captain brought up cfds (centralized fault display system) function in his mcdu (multi-function control and display unit) and a 'current leg ECAM report' was requested from button 2L. At this time the ENG2 reverse unlocked was noted in the history as the ECAM we had seen. Although brief; this ECAM caused concern to the crew as it is a fairly significant flight event to have a reverser unlock or un-stow. An emergency phone patch was requested from dispatch and maintenance control. Maintenance control could not definitively give us a cause or an in-flight reset of this fault but it caused us enough concern to return to our departure airport. As the fault did not re-appear; we did not run the irreg checklist but we briefed it and had it ready to execute if needed. We also decided the land as soon as possible section of the irreg checklist could be belayed as long as the fault did not come back. We did have multiple diversion airports available. We declared an emergency with ATC to get priority routing back to the airport. We landed without further incident. Amts (aircraft maintenance technicians) there informed us the ECAM fault had a history over the past few days but since it was such a brief fault we were the first to report it. An initial verbal report from the amts indicated 'probably' a wiring fault. The aircraft was removed from service for repair. I am very troubled we took off in an aircraft with a potentially catastrophic fault. As the amts noted; this fault had been occurring for a few days. The jet knew it was faulting; it appears the company has no way to cull this information prior to an actual fault event. I would strongly recommend we utilize the technology we have available and have a qualified amt take a reading from the cfds (centralized fault display system) computer between every leg. I believe this can be done remotely. Also; systems knowledge allowed the crew to access the cfds system and extract much needed safety information for this flight (i.e; what was that ECAM we couldn't recall?). The aom is fairly limited with information on this valuable informational tool and the crew recommends a more comprehensive description of the cfds system and its capabilities be included in our training and the aom. Without the information we could have continued with a very insidious but serious fault that could have manifested into a serious incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A briefly illuminated EICAS message was eventually determined to have been an ENG2 Reverse Unlock advisory after a review of the CURRENT LEG ECAM REPORT on the CFDS page. The A320 Flight Crew then opted to declare an emergency and return to their departure airport for maintenance.

Narrative: While climbing through FL300 ECAM displayed a message and associated chime. By the time both pilots attention was brought to the ECAM screen the message had disappeared. Something in regard to ENG2 had been observed but the rest of the script disappeared too quickly to be read. A 'RCL' [recall] was attempted and the message could not be brought up. The Captain brought up CFDS (centralized fault display system) function in his MCDU (multi-function control and display unit) and a 'CURRENT LEG ECAM REPORT' was requested from button 2L. At this time the ENG2 Reverse Unlocked was noted in the history as the ECAM we had seen. Although brief; this ECAM caused concern to the crew as it is a fairly significant flight event to have a reverser unlock or un-stow. An emergency phone patch was requested from dispatch and Maintenance Control. Maintenance Control could not definitively give us a cause or an in-flight reset of this fault but it caused us enough concern to return to our departure airport. As the fault did not re-appear; we did not run the IRREG Checklist but we briefed it and had it ready to execute if needed. We also decided the LAND ASAP section of the IRREG checklist could be belayed as long as the fault did not come back. We did have multiple diversion airports available. We declared an emergency with ATC to get priority routing back to the airport. We landed without further incident. AMTs (Aircraft Maintenance Technicians) there informed us the ECAM fault had a history over the past few days but since it was such a brief fault we were the first to report it. An initial verbal report from the AMTs indicated 'probably' a wiring fault. The aircraft was removed from service for repair. I am very troubled we took off in an aircraft with a potentially catastrophic fault. As the AMTs noted; this fault had been occurring for a few days. The jet knew it was faulting; it appears the company has no way to cull this information prior to an actual fault event. I would strongly recommend we utilize the technology we have available and have a qualified AMT take a reading from the CFDS (Centralized Fault Display System) computer between every leg. I believe this can be done remotely. ALSO; systems knowledge allowed the crew to access the CFDS system and extract much needed safety information for this flight (i.e; what was that ECAM we couldn't recall?). The AOM is fairly limited with information on this valuable informational tool and the crew recommends a more comprehensive description of the CFDS system and its capabilities be included in our training and the AOM. Without the information we could have continued with a very insidious but serious fault that could have manifested into a serious incident.

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.