MD80 flight attendant reports being part of a ferry crew asked to bring an aircraft back to base wit...

Narrative:

Plane came in on the day prior with a report of a strong electrical burning smell coming from aft right lavatory. Local mechanics worked on plane for 3 hours and were not able to find the problem. Then more mechanics worked overnight and were not able to find the problem. We overnighted and arrived at the airport on the next day for an early departure. Captain was not satisfied with the findings. After talking with maintenance; chief pilot and scheduling none would make a decision on what to do. Finally they asked us to go to the plane; run the engines for a while and see if smell reoccurred which it did not. We were then released to ferry the plane back. About 20 minutes into the flight; we checked the lavatory to discover a strong burning smell and the decision was made to return to land as soon as possible. When we arrived we were met by fire squad who checked the plane and found nothing. The flight was then canceled and we were dead headed back to base.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD80 Flight Attendant reports being part of a ferry crew asked to bring an aircraft back to base with an unresolved history of electrical burning smells from the right aft lavatory. Twenty minutes into the flight the smell returns and the flight returns to the departure airport.

Narrative: Plane came in on the day prior with a report of a strong electrical burning smell coming from aft right lavatory. Local mechanics worked on plane for 3 hours and were not able to find the problem. Then more mechanics worked overnight and were not able to find the problem. We overnighted and arrived at the airport on the next day for an early departure. Captain was not satisfied with the findings. After talking with Maintenance; Chief Pilot and Scheduling none would make a decision on what to do. Finally they asked us to go to the plane; run the engines for a while and see if smell reoccurred which it did not. We were then released to ferry the plane back. About 20 minutes into the flight; we checked the lavatory to discover a strong burning smell and the decision was made to return to land ASAP. When we arrived we were met by fire squad who checked the plane and found nothing. The flight was then canceled and we were dead headed back to base.

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	977752
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Experience	Flight Attendant Airline Total 25 Flight Attendant Number Of Acft Qualified On 3 Flight Attendant Total 25 Flight Attendant Type 80
Events
Anomaly	Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

MD80 flight attendant reports being part of a ferry crew asked to bring an aircraft back to base with an unresolved history of electrical burning smells from the right aft lavatory. Twenty minutes into the flight the smell returns and the flight returns to the departure airport.