Narrative:

In ZZZZ we came to the airplane and found some compounded MEL write-ups. The equipment cooling auto was placarded as well as the APU bleed valve to name a few. The APU bleed air valve was indicated on the flight plan as locked shut. We started one engine at the gate; and upon pushback could not accomplish a cross-bleed start due to insufficient duct pressure. We returned to the gate and assisted maintenance in running tests to isolate the problem. Part of the maintenance trouble shooting was to routinely select and deselect the APU bleed valve even though it was clearly written up in the logbook and placarded at the APU bleed valve as locked shut. We confronted the mechanic as this did not appear to be a correct way to manipulate a repeated 'placarded item' which was supposed to be locked shut according to the flight plan MEL. His answer was 'I am a mechanic and I can remove this placard as the problem is fixed.' this appears to be an inappropriate way to fix and clear a placarded item. There was no corrective action nor tests made to this repeated placarded item. Apparently this never fixed the problem; however I seriously doubt the FAA would consider these actions as corrective action to repair a repeated problem.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A First Officer reports the trouble shooting procedures a Mechanic used to determine the cause of a failed cross-bleed engine start on their B767-300 during pushback. The Mechanic selected and deselected the APU bleed valve even though the valve was written-up in the logbook and placarded as APU BLEED valve LOCKED SHUT.

Narrative: In ZZZZ we came to the airplane and found some compounded MEL write-ups. The Equipment Cooling Auto was placarded as well as the APU Bleed valve to name a few. The APU bleed air valve was indicated on the flight plan as LOCKED SHUT. We started one engine at the gate; and upon pushback could not accomplish a cross-bleed start due to insufficient duct pressure. We returned to the gate and assisted maintenance in running tests to isolate the problem. Part of the maintenance trouble shooting was to routinely select and deselect the APU bleed valve even though it was clearly written up in the Logbook and placarded at the APU bleed valve as locked shut. We confronted the Mechanic as this did not appear to be a correct way to manipulate a repeated 'placarded item' which was supposed to be locked shut according to the flight plan MEL. His answer was 'I am a Mechanic and I can remove this placard as the problem is fixed.' This appears to be an inappropriate way to fix and clear a placarded item. There was NO corrective action nor tests made to this repeated placarded item. Apparently this never fixed the problem; however I seriously doubt the FAA would consider these actions as corrective action to repair a repeated problem.

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.