Narrative:

I was assigned to air carrier Y's B737-900 aircraft [on this night]. It had an inbound logbook write-up that door-1Left (1L) was hard to open and could not be opened fully. I discovered a broken bolt (item 70) [in illustrated parts catalog (ipc)] on the door upper inboard hinge arm (item 240); which allowed the lower radius link (item 100) to hang down; reference ipc 52-11-21. The link provides spacing between the two upper hinge arms; one stationary and the other riding inside the hinge track fitting attached to the fuselage. The hinge arms provide support for the door from the open position to the fully closed position.I was asked by air carrier Y's maintenance controller to tie up the loose link and use MEL 52-05 to get the aircraft out of town; since we did not have the link bolt to fix the problem. I explained that this link had nothing to do with the lock mechanism and that the door was also hard to open. He continued to talk to me about using that reference in spite of my concerns. I felt I was being pressured to use this reference which did not apply and it was an unsafe condition which he stated they used all the time to move aircraft. This aircraft did not leave my station until the bolt was fixed. My concern and purpose in sending this report is that an unsafe condition on these doors is not allowed to operate [on an aircraft] in the future without proper deferral reference to the condition found; if such a deferral is possible. I believe it is not.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Mechanic reports he was contracted to perform maintenance on a different Air Carrier's B737-900 aircraft that had an inbound logbook write-up for a door-1Left (1L) 'difficult to open' and 'could not be fully opened.' Mechanic noted he had been pressured by a Maintenance Controller to defer the door operation under an MEL that did not apply.

Narrative: I was assigned to Air Carrier Y's B737-900 aircraft [on this night]. It had an inbound logbook write-up that door-1Left (1L) was hard to open and could not be opened fully. I discovered a broken bolt (Item 70) [in Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC)] on the door upper inboard hinge arm (Item 240); which allowed the lower radius link (item 100) to hang down; reference IPC 52-11-21. The link provides spacing between the two upper hinge arms; one stationary and the other riding inside the hinge track fitting attached to the fuselage. The hinge arms provide support for the door from the open position to the fully closed position.I was asked by Air Carrier Y's Maintenance Controller to tie up the loose link and use MEL 52-05 to get the aircraft out of town; since we did not have the link bolt to fix the problem. I explained that this link had nothing to do with the lock mechanism and that the door was also hard to open. He continued to talk to me about using that reference in spite of my concerns. I felt I was being pressured to use this reference which did not apply and it was an unsafe condition which he stated they used all the time to move aircraft. This aircraft did not leave my station until the bolt was fixed. My concern and purpose in sending this report is that an unsafe condition on these doors is not allowed to operate [on an aircraft] in the future without proper deferral reference to the condition found; if such a deferral is possible. I believe it is not.

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.