Narrative:

At approximately 100 miles out of ZZZ; the 'a' flight attendant (flight attendant) came up to the flight deck as the first officer (first officer) had requested a bathroom break. When he left; she informed me that the lights on her flight attendant panel and the flight attendant aft panel had 'been flickering on and off like crazy.' she asked if this was serious because this airplane (the airbus) has a lot of electrical problems. I told her that it is something we need to look at so I need to know exactly what is going on. As we were talking I pulled up the electrical page to look for any abnormalities in the electrical system. All indications were normal. I told her when I step back to use the restroom I will look at the lights she is talking about to assess them. I put in a call to dispatch thru the ACARS so that I could speak to both dispatch and maintenance control about what the flight attendant was reporting.I told her I would watch for the cycle she was talking about. When I used the facility; I cycled the lock a few times to see if there was any issue with the lights in the lav. They functioned normally. When I stepped out of the lav; I said the 'a' flight attendant had reported the panel lights in the forward and aft galley had been flickering on and off and asked if that is what he was seeing in the aft galley area as well. He said yes; they were doing the same thing back there. I turned to the flight attendant panel (near door 1L) to look for any failure lights; put my hand on the panel and asked him to confirm that they were getting the flickering lights on their flight attendant panels. He said yes again.I got a hold of dispatch and we got patched through to maintenance control. I told maintenance control what the flight attendant had been reporting and relayed to him the length of time she had said the lights had been flickering. [He] did some research in his manual and referenced the page on generator shorting. I also had the manual out to that page. He said we could have that situation. I told him that all our electrical indications were normal and we had no display blanking issues or ecams. Maintenance control said that we could have normal indications; but one of the symptoms is cabin lighting blinking issues. He referenced his manual and the bulletin that had come out about that. He said that they had done some maintenance on the #2 generator in may and it could be a shorting on that connector. I asked him what he suggested as I was showing all normal indications. He said; using captain's emergency authority; he suggested disconnecting the #2 CSD. Let me point out that maintenance control was very through in his explanation and we had a good discussion about the situation. With dispatch on the radio; I told him that if we were talking about taking a generator off line that we were not continuing onto destination and we needed to look at coming into ZZZ1 as we were about 100 miles out of ZZZ1. They both concurred since the weather in the destination area was bad and if there was an issue with the generator; they wanted to have the jet looked at. He asked if there were any failure lights on the flight attendant panel or any ecams. I said; 'no ecams; but let me verify with the flight attendant one more time.' I called the 'a' flight attendant and asked her. She confirmed they had no failure lights. Maintenance control suggested it was best to get the jet looked at given the similar issues on the fleet with generator problems. I concurred. I briefed first officer on the conversation and said we were going to ZZZ1. He told ATC while I briefed the flight attendants and passengers. I asked first officer to get lower so that I could start the APU so we could set up to take the #2 generator off line. We were going to set up to do so and I had the check list out. The first officer and I discussed the taking the #2 generator off line. Neither of us were certain there was a short going on; but we did not want to disregard maintenance's advice. We determined the most prudent course of action was to set up to take the generator off line; checklist out; but since we were so close to ZZZ1 (now below 21;000FT with the APU running and less than 60 miles to ZZZ1) we would keep the configuration as is and land. We had all checklists complete; routing in the box; announcements made to the passengers; and briefed the flight attendant's. She asked if I had reset the generator as the lights had stopped flashing. I said no; we had not reset anything. She then said; 'well it [was] only the reading lights above her galley area.' I stopped and asked her to confirm this change. I told her she had stated to me several times the lights on the flight attendant panels in the forward and aft galley had been flickering on and off like crazy. She said she used the wrong terminology and it was the overhead reading lights not the panel. I asked her if that was the same in the aft galley. She said yes.I called dispatch right away and conveyed that the flight attendant's were now reporting that she used the incorrect terminology; it was not any of the panels but the overhead reading lights in the forward and aft flight attendant area. I told him we wanted to continue to destination if he was good with that. He said he was; but that destination was now in a hold due to severe weather that built just to the west of the airport and ZZZ2 was ground stopped and asked about our fuel situation. I asked him what the burn was to destination. He said 8;000 [pounds]. We currently had less than 16;000 [pounds] on board and we were just west of ZZZ1. We determined with the burn; landing fuel; fuel for alt; [that] we had no hold fuel. We discussed the fuel and concurred we needed to land in ZZZ1 and get more fuel.before we took off again; I spoke with the 'a' flight attendant. She said that the lights had been flickering like crazy; but she had mistakenly said it was the lights on the flight attendant panels. She said she had spoken to the aft flight attendant and asked him if he had said anything that lead to the miscommunication. She said he told her that when I touched the flight attendant panel (to verify what was happening and make sure I understood what areas they were speaking of) he had said those were the lights on the panel; but did not mean to indicate those were the lights that were flashing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A miscommunication between an A320 Captain and the 'A' Flight Attendant lead the Captain to believe that a generator arcing event may be occurring and a diversion for maintenance is planned. Before landing the miscommunication is cleared up but destination weather and fuel remaining make the diversion necessary.

Narrative: At approximately 100 miles out of ZZZ; the 'A' Flight Attendant (FA) came up to the flight deck as the First Officer (FO) had requested a bathroom break. When he left; she informed me that the lights on her FA panel and the FA aft panel had 'been flickering on and off like crazy.' She asked if this was serious because this airplane (the Airbus) has a lot of electrical problems. I told her that it is something we need to look at so I need to know exactly what is going on. As we were talking I pulled up the electrical page to look for any abnormalities in the electrical system. All indications were normal. I told her when I step back to use the restroom I will look at the lights she is talking about to assess them. I put in a call to Dispatch thru the ACARS so that I could speak to both Dispatch and Maintenance Control about what the FA was reporting.I told her I would watch for the cycle she was talking about. When I used the facility; I cycled the lock a few times to see if there was any issue with the lights in the lav. They functioned normally. When I stepped out of the lav; I said the 'A' FA had reported the panel lights in the forward and aft galley had been flickering on and off and asked if that is what he was seeing in the aft galley area as well. He said yes; they were doing the same thing back there. I turned to the FA panel (near door 1L) to look for any failure lights; put my hand on the panel and asked him to confirm that they were getting the flickering lights on their FA panels. He said yes again.I got a hold of Dispatch and we got patched through to Maintenance Control. I told Maintenance Control what the FA had been reporting and relayed to him the length of time she had said the lights had been flickering. [He] did some research in his manual and referenced the page on generator shorting. I also had the manual out to that page. He said we could have that situation. I told him that all our electrical indications were normal and we had no display blanking issues or ECAMS. Maintenance Control said that we could have normal indications; but one of the symptoms is cabin lighting blinking issues. He referenced his manual and the bulletin that had come out about that. He said that they had done some maintenance on the #2 generator in May and it could be a shorting on that connector. I asked him what he suggested as I was showing all normal indications. He said; using Captain's emergency authority; he suggested disconnecting the #2 CSD. Let me point out that Maintenance Control was very through in his explanation and we had a good discussion about the situation. With Dispatch on the radio; I told him that if we were talking about taking a generator off line that we were not continuing onto destination and we needed to look at coming into ZZZ1 as we were about 100 miles out of ZZZ1. They both concurred since the weather in the destination area was bad and if there was an issue with the generator; they wanted to have the jet looked at. He asked if there were any failure lights on the FA panel or any ECAMS. I said; 'No ECAMS; but let me verify with the FA one more time.' I called the 'A' FA and asked her. She confirmed they had no failure lights. Maintenance Control suggested it was best to get the jet looked at given the similar issues on the fleet with generator problems. I concurred. I briefed FO on the conversation and said we were going to ZZZ1. He told ATC while I briefed the flight attendants and passengers. I asked FO to get lower so that I could start the APU so we could set up to take the #2 generator off line. We were going to set up to do so and I had the check list out. The FO and I discussed the taking the #2 generator off line. Neither of us were certain there was a short going on; but we did not want to disregard Maintenance's advice. We determined the most prudent course of action was to set up to take the generator off line; checklist out; but since we were so close to ZZZ1 (now below 21;000FT with the APU running and less than 60 miles to ZZZ1) we would keep the configuration as is and land. We had all checklists complete; routing in the box; announcements made to the passengers; and briefed the FA's. She asked if I had reset the generator as the lights had stopped flashing. I said no; we had not reset anything. She then said; 'Well it [was] only the reading lights above her galley area.' I stopped and asked her to confirm this change. I told her she had stated to me several times the lights on the FA panels in the forward and aft galley had been flickering on and off like crazy. She said she used the wrong terminology and it was the overhead reading lights not the panel. I asked her if that was the same in the aft galley. She said yes.I called Dispatch right away and conveyed that the FA's were now reporting that she used the incorrect terminology; it was not any of the panels but the overhead reading lights in the forward and aft FA area. I told him we wanted to continue to destination if he was good with that. He said he was; but that destination was now in a hold due to severe weather that built just to the west of the airport and ZZZ2 was ground stopped and asked about our fuel situation. I asked him what the burn was to destination. He said 8;000 [LBS]. We currently had less than 16;000 [LBS] on board and we were just west of ZZZ1. We determined with the burn; landing fuel; fuel for alt; [that] we had no hold fuel. We discussed the fuel and concurred we needed to land in ZZZ1 and get more fuel.Before we took off again; I spoke with the 'A' FA. She said that the lights had been flickering like crazy; but she had mistakenly said it was the lights on the FA panels. She said she had spoken to the aft FA and asked him if he had said anything that lead to the miscommunication. She said he told her that when I touched the FA panel (to verify what was happening and make sure I understood what areas they were speaking of) he had said those were the lights on the panel; but did not mean to indicate those were the lights that were flashing.

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.