Narrative:

This was the first leg in this aircraft. There was heavy rain enroute through the eastern half of the flight. The flight was uneventful until engine shut down at block in. At engine shut down; I leaned over to open the cockpit door. When I did; I smelled a strong electrical burning smell. I turned to the first officer to ask him about the smell and I looked at the instruments to see if there were any other indications of something burning. He suggested that it was possibly the engine exhaust we could be smelling as there was wind and the cabin door was open. The smell lasted a short time; approximately 10 seconds. Having no other secondary indications of an issue; the smell had since dissipated; this seemed reasonable. We had a 37 minute turn so we boarded the jet for our return flight. While taxing out; the first officer elected to use the radar for departure; as the weather was moving in. I turned on my radar as well. I did not receive any radar returns for the first several sweeps. I then got returns for several sweeps; to again have them disappear. The first officer radar was intermittent as well. We cycled the radar on and off several times to have the same results. We took the gain from automatic to maximum and settings in between. We tested all ranges; mirroring both ranges on each side and then separate ranges. The results were the same. We did not receive any failure messages. We elected to taxi back to the gate as I wanted a mechanic to examine the radar as opposed to a circuit breaker reset. This was due to the nature of the failures accompanied with no failure warnings and the weather along the flight. I informed the flight attendants we had to return to the gate and the first officer let operations know. When we got back to gate and shut down the engines. Immediately the a flight attendant reported that he smelled a strong electrical burning smell. I asked him the location and to describe exactly what he had smelled. He described the same smell I had experienced in the same area; again a short duration. The area was right by the cockpit door. (Please note that I had not discussed the smell I experienced on the previous leg with the flight attendant. The first officer took care of write ups while I went to the jet bridge and called dispatch. I asked the dispatcher to patch me through to maintenance and stay on the line. I explained to maintenance the issues we had. While I was talking to him; the a flight attendant came told me that the passenger entertainment system had cycled on and off when we had taxied out. (We had started both engines at the gate). I reported that to maintenance as well. In addition; while I told maintenance that I did not feel this was an issue; but I was giving him everything we saw; I had quick sporadic flashes of messages at the top of my pfd at power transfer. Maintenance said that we would not be taking the jet anywhere with a burning smell twice in a row. We told him we felt the same way. I briefed the contract mechanic. It is my opinion that he was not very interested in speaking with me as he wanted to talk only to maintenance. He did not ask me any questions or spoke any further with me; only to ask what maintenance was asking him to ask me (over his cell phone). He went to the cockpit to test the radar. He ran the tests pattern on the radar and tests through the jets computer. I was up in the cockpit with him and told him we had not received any failure messages but had lost the return of the weather several times. (Thinking the radar may ground test ok; but not work when turned on). We had told him we would configure the jet as we had before (engines running; and out where we could turn on the radar and show him what we had). We were not asked to do so. The contract mechanic had also opened the avionics bay to check for a smell and had not detected any odor. I told him that this was well after the smell had dissipated; so it was not unexpected that he would not smell anything at this time.I did not see the contract mechanic again. The first officer; I and the flight attendant crew stayed on the jet. The first officer asked if I knew the flight attendants had a legality issue. I did not. He said that the gate agents had received a call regarding it; they go illegal in an hour and fifteen minutes and they passed this information on to us. I verified this with the flight attendants. We were told the jet was released and that they were going to board the aircraft for departure. We had not heard anything from maintenance regarding the jet. We had not received a maintenance release. We had no information on anything regarding the status of the jet or what was found. The first officer worked with the gate agents to hold off on the boarding; explaining the situation to them; as I got on the phone again with maintenance. I asked maintenance what was causing the electrical smell. He said he did not know yet; that it might be the passenger entertainment control unit and that might be deferred. I told him that was a big assumption and how did we know that was the cause. He stated that was why they were still looking into the issue. I asked him why he released the jet. He said he had not released the jet and he would not until he could track down the smell. (He was very good to work with and it is unfortunate we both had conflicting information as to the status of the jet). I told him that we were told the jet had been released and the new maintenance release was down in operations. The gate agents had passed on the information to us. He had no information on this and stated he had not released the jet. The first officer had just received the new maintenance release and all 3 write ups had been signed off. I called dispatch back to update him. I let him know we were not taking the jet until we could get some information on what was causing the smell or some reasonable explanation. He concurred. He said that they would most likely send in an engineering crew to ferry the jet to a maintenance base. At this point the flight attendants went illegal. The flight was canceled about a half an hour later. We stayed on the jet. [Analyst summary: the captain reported a dispute developed when maintenance claimed the crew had not cooperated with maintenance to solve burning smell issue. Maintenance attempted to force the crew to fly the aircraft by stating no more maintenance would be accomplished and an engineer crew would not be sent to ferry the aircraft. The crew refused a ferry flight the following day because maintenance had not completed any troubleshooting or prepared a brief for the crew. The crew was approved to taxi out and configure the aircraft for takeoff as they had done the previous day when the burning electrical smell appeared. The burning smell returned on taxi back and shutdown.]

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 radar malfunctioned during taxi for takeoff so the crew returned to the gate where a burning electrical smell was detected on engine shutdown and where a passenger entertainment system anomaly was also noted. Interaction issues with maintenance developed.

Narrative: This was the first leg in this aircraft. There was heavy rain enroute through the eastern half of the flight. The flight was uneventful until engine shut down at block in. At engine shut down; I leaned over to open the cockpit door. When I did; I smelled a strong electrical burning smell. I turned to the First Officer to ask him about the smell and I looked at the instruments to see if there were any other indications of something burning. He suggested that it was possibly the engine exhaust we could be smelling as there was wind and the cabin door was open. The smell lasted a short time; approximately 10 seconds. Having no other secondary indications of an issue; the smell had since dissipated; this seemed reasonable. We had a 37 minute turn so we boarded the jet for our return flight. While taxing out; the First Officer elected to use the radar for departure; as the weather was moving in. I turned on my radar as well. I did not receive any radar returns for the first several sweeps. I then got returns for several sweeps; to again have them disappear. The First Officer radar was intermittent as well. We cycled the radar on and off several times to have the same results. We took the gain from AUTO to MAX and settings in between. We tested all ranges; mirroring both ranges on each side and then separate ranges. The results were the same. We did not receive any failure messages. We elected to taxi back to the gate as I wanted a mechanic to examine the radar as opposed to a circuit breaker reset. This was due to the nature of the failures accompanied with no failure warnings and the weather along the flight. I informed the flight attendants we had to return to the gate and the First Officer let Operations know. When we got back to gate and shut down the engines. Immediately the A Flight Attendant reported that he smelled a strong electrical burning smell. I asked him the location and to describe exactly what he had smelled. He described the same smell I had experienced in the same area; again a short duration. The area was right by the cockpit door. (Please note that I had not discussed the smell I experienced on the previous leg with the Flight Attendant. The First Officer took care of write ups while I went to the jet bridge and called Dispatch. I asked the Dispatcher to patch me through to Maintenance and stay on the line. I explained to Maintenance the issues we had. While I was talking to him; the A Flight Attendant came told me that the passenger entertainment system had cycled on and off when we had taxied out. (We had started both engines at the gate). I reported that to Maintenance as well. In addition; while I told Maintenance that I did not feel this was an issue; but I was giving him everything we saw; I had quick sporadic flashes of messages at the top of my PFD at power transfer. Maintenance said that we would not be taking the jet anywhere with a burning smell twice in a row. We told him we felt the same way. I briefed the Contract Mechanic. It is my opinion that he was not very interested in speaking with me as he wanted to talk only to Maintenance. He did not ask me any questions or spoke any further with me; only to ask what Maintenance was asking him to ask me (over his cell phone). He went to the cockpit to test the radar. He ran the tests pattern on the radar and tests through the jets computer. I was up in the cockpit with him and told him we had not received any failure messages but had lost the return of the weather several times. (Thinking the radar may ground test OK; but not work when turned on). We had told him we would configure the jet as we had before (engines running; and out where we could turn on the radar and show him what we had). We were not asked to do so. The Contract Mechanic had also opened the avionics bay to check for a smell and had not detected any odor. I told him that this was well after the smell had dissipated; so it was not unexpected that he would not smell anything at this time.I did not see the Contract Mechanic again. The First Officer; I and the flight attendant crew stayed on the jet. The First Officer asked if I knew the flight attendants had a legality issue. I did not. He said that the gate agents had received a call regarding it; they go illegal in an hour and fifteen minutes and they passed this information on to us. I verified this with the flight attendants. We were told the jet was released and that they were going to board the aircraft for departure. We had not heard anything from Maintenance regarding the jet. We had not received a maintenance release. We had no information on anything regarding the status of the jet or what was found. The First Officer worked with the gate agents to hold off on the boarding; explaining the situation to them; as I got on the phone again with Maintenance. I asked Maintenance what was causing the electrical smell. He said he did not know yet; that it might be the passenger entertainment control unit and that might be deferred. I told him that was a big assumption and how did we know that was the cause. He stated that was why they were still looking into the issue. I asked him why he released the jet. He said he had not released the jet and he would not until he could track down the smell. (He was very good to work with and it is unfortunate we both had conflicting information as to the status of the jet). I told him that we were told the jet had been released and the new maintenance release was down in Operations. The gate agents had passed on the information to us. He had no information on this and stated he had not released the jet. The First Officer had just received the new maintenance release and all 3 write ups had been signed off. I called Dispatch back to update him. I let him know we were not taking the jet until we could get some information on what was causing the smell or some reasonable explanation. He concurred. He said that they would most likely send in an engineering crew to ferry the jet to a maintenance base. At this point the flight attendants went illegal. The flight was canceled about a half an hour later. We stayed on the jet. [Analyst Summary: The Captain reported a dispute developed when Maintenance claimed the crew had not cooperated with Maintenance to solve burning smell issue. Maintenance attempted to force the crew to fly the aircraft by stating no more maintenance would be accomplished and an engineer crew would not be sent to ferry the aircraft. The crew refused a ferry flight the following day because Maintenance had not completed any troubleshooting or prepared a brief for the crew. The crew was approved to taxi out and configure the aircraft for takeoff as they had done the previous day when the burning electrical smell appeared. The burning smell returned on taxi back and shutdown.]

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.