Narrative:

Previous crew advised us that they had flap issues earlier in the day. After pushback; flaps failed at 0. We returned to the gate and deplaned passengers. Since this was the second flap incident that day; I was expecting the aircraft to be non-airworthy until further maintenance inspections. However; when I called maintenance control; they reset the flap circuit breaker and signed off the aircraft for revenue service. I expressed my concern that the aircraft was not ready for revenue service; but maintenance control explained that under a flap ad and a reset guide; the aircraft was cleared back to service. I scanned my [manual] for guidance; but could not locate anything about this ad quickly. This flight was already 4 hours late; [so] I instructed the ground crew to board for departure.a quick attempt was made to contact the chief pilot's office; but I was not successful. The next day I was able to find the ad in the [manual]. After reading it; it's my opinion that the maintenance reset at the first flap event that day was done incorrectly; and that when we had our second event that evening; the aircraft should have been removed from service. For some reason; the flap ad was not applied to the aircraft when the aircraft made an air return in [another station] due to a flap fail message. So when I got a flap fail later that day; the aircraft had 2 flap failures within 10 cycles; but maintenance didn't ground the aircraft because the flap ad was never applied.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-200 Captain reported being dispatched following a flap writeup in a manner he felt was not consistent with the applicable AD. He had the same flap failure on his flight.

Narrative: Previous crew advised us that they had flap issues earlier in the day. After pushback; flaps failed at 0. We returned to the gate and deplaned passengers. Since this was the second flap incident that day; I was expecting the aircraft to be non-airworthy until further maintenance inspections. However; when I called Maintenance Control; they reset the flap Circuit Breaker and signed off the aircraft for revenue service. I expressed my concern that the aircraft was not ready for revenue service; but Maintenance Control explained that under a flap AD and a reset guide; the aircraft was cleared back to service. I scanned my [manual] for guidance; but could not locate anything about this AD quickly. This flight was already 4 hours late; [so] I instructed the ground crew to board for departure.A quick attempt was made to contact the Chief Pilot's office; but I was not successful. The next day I was able to find the AD in the [manual]. After reading it; it's my opinion that the Maintenance reset at the first flap event that day was done incorrectly; and that when we had our second event that evening; the aircraft should have been removed from service. For some reason; the flap AD was not applied to the aircraft when the aircraft made an air return in [another station] due to a flap fail message. So when I got a flap fail later that day; the aircraft had 2 flap failures within 10 cycles; but Maintenance didn't ground the aircraft because the flap AD was never applied.

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.