Narrative:

This is the third consecutive aircraft that I have found and reported undocumented repairs to damaged areas in our cargo bins. Crew members have submitted numerous ASRS reports documenting these events. My concern is that; because these events are not isolated; the airline is significantly and unnecessarily decreasing our operational safety margin in respect to cargo fire mitigation.as we have learned through accident analysis; even a fire that is quickly identified can leave the crew with only a few precious minutes to safely land and evacuate an aircraft. The ability of our aircraft's class C bins to isolate fire; fumes; and smoke from the passenger compartment; to protect the structure of the aircraft; and to suppress the fire; depends on bins ability to create an airtight compartment. The damage I have seen leaves our blowout panels vulnerable to being dislodged by shifting and unsecured baggage; thus rendering our fire suppression systems almost useless. Crew members have also seen and reported sagging panels and holes in the ceiling.I am concerned that our cargo bins are not being inspected properly. The above mentioned aircraft had just left a 'heavy check' the day prior at an outstation. The undocumented damage was indicated by application of aircraft maintenance tape. Because the aircraft had left a heavy check with obvious damage; damage apparent to even the most casual observer; and because our forward bin was now deferred and all cargo would be loaded in the back; I requested that line maintenance inspect the aft cargo bin; which I entered into the logbook.when the mechanic returned the logbook; her writeup in response to my request to inspect the aft cargo bay stated; 'no inspection required at this time per the company maintenance manual.' we called maintenance controller; the controller agreed that this was not an appropriate sign-off and we re-entered the request to inspect the cargo bin; which was then complied with.the risk of an in-flight cargo fire is of increasing concern because of the state of our cargo bins and because our outsourced partners don't know our airline's established guidelines for the carriage of large lithium batteries. We often carry lithium batteries for mobility devices without crew notification. My goal in this submittal is that the airline will begin to perform the proper inspections; perform the proper repairs when damage is found; and properly document maintenance actions as required per our maintenance manual. The above mentioned issue also caused a multiple hour delay to numerous flights.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Airbus A321 Captain reported that there are undocumented repairs to damaged areas in cargo compartments.

Narrative: This is the third consecutive aircraft that I have found and reported undocumented repairs to damaged areas in our cargo bins. Crew members have submitted numerous ASRS reports documenting these events. My concern is that; because these events are not isolated; the airline is significantly and unnecessarily decreasing our operational safety margin in respect to cargo fire mitigation.As we have learned through accident analysis; even a fire that is quickly identified can leave the crew with only a few precious minutes to safely land and evacuate an aircraft. The ability of our aircraft's Class C bins to isolate fire; fumes; and smoke from the passenger compartment; to protect the structure of the aircraft; and to suppress the fire; depends on bins ability to create an airtight compartment. The damage I have seen leaves our blowout panels vulnerable to being dislodged by shifting and unsecured baggage; thus rendering our fire suppression systems almost useless. Crew members have also seen and reported sagging panels and holes in the ceiling.I am concerned that our cargo bins are not being inspected properly. The above mentioned aircraft had just left a 'Heavy Check' the day prior at an outstation. The undocumented damage was indicated by application of aircraft maintenance tape. Because the aircraft had left a heavy check with obvious damage; damage apparent to even the most casual observer; and because our forward bin was now deferred and all cargo would be loaded in the back; I requested that line maintenance inspect the aft cargo bin; which I entered into the logbook.When the mechanic returned the logbook; her writeup in response to my request to inspect the aft cargo bay stated; 'No inspection required at this time per the company maintenance manual.' We called Maintenance Controller; the controller agreed that this was not an appropriate sign-off and we re-entered the request to inspect the cargo bin; which was then complied with.The risk of an in-flight cargo fire is of increasing concern because of the state of our cargo bins and because our outsourced partners don't know our airline's established guidelines for the carriage of large lithium batteries. We often carry lithium batteries for mobility devices without crew notification. My goal in this submittal is that the airline will begin to perform the proper inspections; perform the proper repairs when damage is found; and properly document maintenance actions as required per our maintenance manual. The above mentioned issue also caused a multiple hour delay to numerous flights.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.