A first officer reported finding a large ragged looking repair to the leading edge of the vertical s...

Narrative:

While preflighting aircraft; I noticed a large ragged looking repair to the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. I recalled that both of the speed tape repairs on the horizontal stabilizer were documented when I did an aircraft maintenance history check in operations. I could not recall anything for the vertical stabilizer. I returned to the cockpit and searched the aircraft damage log; the 'open deferral' list sheet; and logbook entries. I could find no record of this repair.I contacted maintenance and the technicians came to look at the problem. They contacted maintenance control and asked them to research the repair. Maintenance control had no record of this rather significant repair having ever been done or tracked in any way. The repair probably required dye penetrant test; bondo-type filler and shaping; and speed tape over it all. The aircraft was taken out of service to have the repair repeated and documented correctly. How can this situation occur; where a significant repair is performed without any documentation at all? The repair was worn and looked ragged. I suspect that it had flown for quite a while in this condition.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A First Officer reported finding a large ragged looking repair to the leading edge of the Vertical Stabilizer during a preflight inspection of a B737-800 aircraft. A call to Maintenance Control revealed the repair was undocumented.

Narrative: While preflighting aircraft; I noticed a large ragged looking repair to the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer. I recalled that both of the speed tape repairs on the horizontal stabilizer were documented when I did an aircraft maintenance history check in Operations. I could not recall anything for the vertical stabilizer. I returned to the cockpit and searched the aircraft damage log; the 'Open deferral' list sheet; and logbook entries. I could find no record of this repair.I contacted Maintenance and the Technicians came to look at the problem. They contacted Maintenance Control and asked them to research the repair. Maintenance Control had no record of this rather significant repair having ever been done or tracked in any way. The repair probably required dye penetrant test; bondo-type filler and shaping; and speed tape over it all. The aircraft was taken out of service to have the repair repeated and documented correctly. How can this situation occur; where a significant repair is performed without any documentation at all? The repair was worn and looked ragged. I suspect that it had flown for quite a while in this condition.

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.

Attributes
ACN	969097
Time
Date	201109
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Vertical Stabilizer/Fin
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural FAR

A first officer reported finding a large ragged looking repair to the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer during a preflight inspection of a B737-800 aircraft. A call to maintenance control revealed the repair was undocumented.