Narrative:

I did the walk around. Upon arrival at left main gear; I noticed a part of the well seal hanging down. I wrote it up in the log and called it in via radio. Had to do other stuff and left area. Upon return; first officer advised me that mechanic had yelled at him that the problem was not 'MEL-able or cdl-able' and that we would be taking a delay. After an hour and a half or so; mechanic comes up and says (sarcastically) 'have a safe flight; captain'. As we prepared to depart; that little voice we have said...take a look. So I went down to the wheel well area and observed the piece of seal completely missing. The mechanic had obviously torn it off and signed the book as being repaired. I returned to the aircraft and wrote it up again. The same mechanic returned; as frustrated as ever and I informed him that the seal was missing and I would not accept the aircraft until repair was effected. We took another long delay and the aircraft was finally repaired and signed off correctly. We then departed. I have sent pictures of the wheel well area and the logbook pages to the air safety chairman.lazy; incompetent; complacent management willing to overlook just about anything to keep the schedule going; the metal moving and the bonus coming. Perhaps if we had a more responsive maintenance department as well as more (and better) FAA oversight; stunts like this would not be acceptable. This is classic pencil-whipping from decades ago and I will not stand for it. Neither should the FAA.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A321 Captain noticed a main gear door seal hanging down and entered the discrepancy in the aircraft Log and informed Maintenance. The maintenance Technician involved removed the dangling seal and signed off the Log book; which is not a proper repair. The flight is further delayed while a new seal is installed.

Narrative: I did the walk around. Upon arrival at left main gear; I noticed a part of the well seal hanging down. I wrote it up in the Log and called it in via radio. Had to do other stuff and left area. Upon return; First Officer advised me that mechanic had yelled at him that the problem was not 'MEL-able or CDL-able' and that we would be taking a delay. After an hour and a half or so; mechanic comes up and says (sarcastically) 'have a safe flight; Captain'. As we prepared to depart; that little voice we have said...take a look. So I went down to the wheel well area and observed the piece of seal completely missing. The mechanic had obviously torn it off and signed the book as being repaired. I returned to the aircraft and wrote it up again. The same mechanic returned; as frustrated as ever and I informed him that the seal was missing and I would not accept the aircraft until repair was effected. We took another long delay and the aircraft was finally repaired and signed off correctly. We then departed. I have sent pictures of the wheel well area and the logbook pages to the Air Safety Chairman.Lazy; incompetent; complacent management willing to overlook just about anything to keep the schedule going; the metal moving and the bonus coming. Perhaps if we had a more responsive Maintenance Department as well as more (and better) FAA oversight; stunts like this would not be acceptable. This is classic pencil-whipping from decades ago and I will not stand for it. Neither should the FAA.

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.