A320 flight crew experienced a refueling door note during takeoff which quickly extinguished. During slat retraction a FLT CNTL SLAT fault is indicated on ECAM and slats will not completely retract. Flight returns to departure airport where refueling door was found open and damaged.

Date: 2011-03 · Aircraft: A320 · Phase: climb

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical

Synopsis

A320 flight crew experienced a refueling door note during takeoff which quickly extinguished. During slat retraction a FLT CNTL SLAT fault is indicated on ECAM and slats will not completely retract. Flight returns to departure airport where refueling door was found open and damaged.

Narrative

We had to return to the field with a slat problem...Upon reaching V1 the refueling light came on; I pointed it out to Captain but we both said press on due to our high speed into the airport. When I announced rotate the refueling light went out so we pressed on as normal...when we retracted the flaps we got a FLT CNTL slat fault on the ECAM and the flap indicator showed slats were not fully retracted. Captain flew aircraft and I proceeded with ECAM which had me recycle flap handle. This did not fix the problem so I pulled out the book and finished the irregular procedure and called Maintenance. The refueling light never came back on at all after airborne by the way. We also had to stop climb at FL200 and stayed at 220 KTS for the rest of the flight. I went back to observe the slats from the cabin and saw that the slats were indeed not fully retracted and something was hanging from the fuel door area. With the concurrence of Maintenance and Dispatch we returned to the airport uneventfully. Flaps and slats all extended properly.

Second reporter narrative

During high speed regime First Officer noticed green 'refueling' note come on then go off; when retracting slats from 1 to 0; received 'FLT/C SLAT FAULT'. Ran the ECAM; consulted the manual; contacted Maintenance Control; and inspected the slats [but] was unable to resolve problem. [We] elected to return to our departure airport [and] executed uneventful arrival. Upon post flight inspection noticed refueling panel; with 1 latch open; and 2 closed; bent in a 'U' shape.

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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.