A B757 first officer's gyro failed during preflight and an incorrect MEL was applied which would app...

Narrative:

We had a failure of the first officer's attitude indicator while on the ground. I switched from first officer to auxiliary on the flight instrument control panel. This corrected the problem. I contacted maintenance control. We checked the MEL and it said we could proceed as long as we had an extra gyro. The flight instrument control panel indicated we had a captains; first officers; and an auxiliary gyro installed; (ca; first officer; auxiliary). The panel did not say ca; first officer; altitude. This would have indicated to us that by switching from first officer to altitude (alternate) this would have only been switching the first officer to the captain's gyro meaning that there were only two gyros installed. But since the panel said ca; first officer; auxiliary meant to me and maintenance control that the auxiliary was an auxiliary gyro giving that airplane three gyros making it legal to dispatch as MEL'ed. Maintenance control informed us that we could defer the first officer's gyro and gave us an MEL number. I accepted maintenance controls decision based on the fact that the panel said ca; first officer; auxiliary. And felt we were in compliance with all regulations and airline policies.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B757 First Officer's gyro failed during preflight and an incorrect MEL was applied which would apply to other B757's in the fleet but not this particular one so the flight was completed with an inoperative item.

Narrative: We had a failure of the First Officer's attitude indicator while on the ground. I switched from First Officer to AUX on the Flight Instrument Control panel. This corrected the problem. I contacted Maintenance Control. We checked the MEL and it said we could proceed as long as we had an extra gyro. The Flight Instrument Control panel indicated we had a Captains; First Officers; and an Auxiliary gyro installed; (CA; FO; AUX). The panel did NOT say CA; FO; ALT. This would have indicated to us that by switching from FO to ALT (alternate) this would have only been switching the First Officer to the Captain's gyro meaning that there were only two gyros installed. But since the panel said CA; FO; AUX meant to me and Maintenance Control that the AUX was an auxiliary gyro giving that airplane three gyros making it legal to dispatch as MEL'ed. Maintenance Control informed us that we could defer the First Officer's gyro and gave us an MEL number. I accepted Maintenance Controls decision based on the fact that the panel said CA; FO; AUX. and felt we were in compliance with all regulations and airline policies.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	995426
Time
Date	201202
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B727-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Attitude
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural MEL

A B757 first officer's gyro failed during preflight and an incorrect MEL was applied which would apply to other B757's in the fleet but not this particular one so the flight was completed with an inoperative item.