1998-10 · NASA ASRS report 417469
A B727-200 RETURNED TO THE GATE DUE TO STALL WARNING STICK SHAKER ACTIVATION AND ASSIGNED MECH ATTEMPTED TO PENCIL WHIP THE RPT WITH NO MAINT ACTION.
TAXIING OUT OF ZZZ THE STICK SHAKER WENT OFF 3 OR 4 TIMES. WE CHKED THE MEL AND CONTACTED MAINT AND RETURNED TO A HARD STAND. A MECH CAME TO THE COCKPIT. HE REACHED DOWN AND TOUCHED THE STICK SHAKER MECHANISM FOR APPROX 2 SECONDS. HE THEN PICKED UP THE LOGBOOK TO CLR ITEM WHICH STATED 'ON TAXI OUT STALL WARNING/STICK SHAKER ACTIVATED 3 TIMES.' THE MAINT CLRING ENTRY WAS 'CLEANED AND RESEATED PLUG ON STICK SHAKER CHKS GOOD; EMPLOYEE #ABZCX.' THE MECH DID NOT DO ANYTHING AT ALL. HE DID NOT CLEAN; RESEAT; OR CHK ANYTHING. I THEN TOLD HIM WE WERE GOING TO DISCUSS HIS ACTIONS AFTER HE LEFT AND WOULD MOST LIKELY FIND THAT WE WERE NOT SATISFIED WITH HIS FIX. HE SAID HE WOULD CHK SOME SWITCHES IN THE WHEEL WELL AND TO TAXI OUT AND TRY IT AGAIN. I ASKED ABOUT WHAT TROUBLESHOOTING PROC THERE MIGHT BE. HE SAID TRY IT AGAIN AND IF WE HAD A PROB HE WOULD FOLLOW THE PROC. I TOLD HIM THAT WE HAD COME BACK AND CALLED MAINT SO WE COULD FOLLOW THE PROC. HE PAID NO ATTN TO MY CONCERN. HE LEFT THE COCKPIT AND ABOUT 5 MINS LATER HE SAID OVER THE INTERPHONE THAT HE HAD FOUND THE VANE IN THE VERT POS AND HAD SPUN IT AROUND AND THOUGHT THAT WE WOULD HAVE SEEN THE STICK SHAKER ACTIVATE. IT DID NOT ACTIVATE. THIS MECH DISPLAYED AN OBVIOUS DISREGARD FOR THIS ENTRY. IN OUR OPINION HE DID NOTHING EVEN AT OUR FURTHER REQUEST TO TROUBLESHOOT THE SYS. WE RETURNED TO THE GATE AND I CALLED ACR TECH AND TALKED TO CTLR. I TOLD HIM THE STORY AND SAID WE NEEDED MAINT. THE SAME GUY CAME TO THE COCKPIT AND STARTED GIVING ME TROUBLE BECAUSE I SAID THAT HE DID NOT CLEAN AND RESEAT THE PLUG. HE ACTUALLY TRIED TO TELL US THAT HE HAD WHEN WE WERE RIGHT THERE AND KNEW THAT HE HAD DONE NOTHING EXCEPT PENCIL WHIP THE LOGBOOK. I TOLD HIM WE WERE NOT STUPID AND KNEW THAT NOTHING WAS DONE. WHEN HE CONTINUED ARGUING I TOLD HIM TO GET THE HELL OUT AND THAT WE NEEDED REAL MAINT. HE LEFT THE AIRPLANE. I TALKED AGAIN TO ACR TECH BUT COULD NOT GET ANY FURTHER MAINT ACTION OF ANY KIND. WE WERE NOW HAVING A MAINT STANDOFF. THEY WERE PLAYING GAMES AT THE EXPENSE OF SAFETY AND PAX CONVENIENCE. I TRIED FOR CLOSE TO 1 HR TO GET MAINT WITH NO SUCCESS. MAINT TOLD THE SUPVR (XYZ; I THINK) THAT THEY DID NOT SEE A PROB WITH THE AIRPLANE. THEY WOULD NOT COME BACK TO THE AIRPLANE. THE COCKPIT CREW WENT ILLEGAL; AND THE FLT WAS CANCELED. WE INCONVENIENCED 130 PAX AND CREATED A REAL MESS FOR THE STATION. THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN REVENUE WERE LOST AND THOUSANDS MORE PROBABLY LOST DUE TO HAVING TO FERRY THE AIRPLANE TO YYY. THE MAIN PROB IS THEIR NEGLECT OF PROCS AND WILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE SAFETY. THE MEL; OUR PROCS AND MAINT; ARE THERE FOR A REASON. THEY SHOULD BE FOLLOWED. I CONTACTED THE CHIEF PLT. HE ADVISED ME OF AN APPROPRIATE FOLLOW-UP WRITE-UP; REQUEST FURTHER ACTION ON PREVIOUS PIREP. NOT SATISFIED WITH MAINT ACTION TAKEN. THE CLRING ENTRY WAS AS FOLLOWS: REPLACED ASA VANE AND CTL MODULE OPS CHK NORMAL; CHANGE FOR CREW PRECAUTIONARY REASON. MAINT ACTION WAS FINALLY TAKEN BUT IT IS OBVIOUS THAT ZZZ MAINT STILL HAD AN ATTITUDE AND THAT SAFETY WAS NOT THEIR ONLY CONCERN. I ALSO INFORMED THE ZZZ CITY MGR THAT SAME EVENING. DISPATCH AND ACR TECH WERE CONTINUALLY INVOLVED AND TRIED TO RESOLVE OUR PROB WITH NO SUCCESS. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: THE RPTR STATED THE MECH DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO PUT THIS AIRPLANE BACK IN SVC. THE RPTR SAID WHAT WAS REALLY A BAD EXPERIENCE WAS LCL MGMNT AND THE MAINT CTLR UNABLE TO CTL THIS SIT. THE RPTR STATED IT WAS A STANDOFF WITH NOTHING DONE ON THE ACFT WITH PAX WAITING TO DEPART.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.