A319 captain reports discovering on preflight that broken engine master switch spring had been defer...

Narrative:

While flight planning; we noticed deferral stated gripe was 'engine #1 master switch has broken spring.' action by maintenance was 'no parts ZZZ and the #1 engine manual control inoperative.' these 2 switches are very different; so I called maintenance for further clarification. Maintenance informed me that contract maintenance had deferred the item overnight. I am concerned about the quality of maintenance that was performed. 1) if anyone had actually looked at and tried moving the #1 engine master switch; it would have been obvious that it was broken internally and the only thing holding the switch in the 'on' or 'off' position was gravity. Accidentally bumping the switch; or encountering turbulence inflight; may have produced an undesired outcome. 2) the item deferred under defect (engine manual control switch) is physically located on the overhead panel; and is not the switch that was written up as inoperative in the gripe. These actions were not performed correctly. If they had been done correctly by overnight maintenance; this flight could have departed on schedule this morning. As of this writing; we are delayed 6 hours waiting for parts to be flown in from another station. This delay was expensive and avoidable.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain reports discovering on preflight that broken ENG Master Switch spring had been deferred under MEL for ENG MAN Control Switch. These switches are completely different and the ENG Master is not deferrable.

Narrative: While flight planning; we noticed deferral stated gripe was 'Engine #1 Master Switch has broken spring.' Action by maintenance was 'No parts ZZZ and the #1 engine manual control inoperative.' These 2 switches are very different; so I called maintenance for further clarification. Maintenance informed me that Contract Maintenance had deferred the item overnight. I am concerned about the quality of maintenance that was performed. 1) If anyone had actually looked at and tried moving the #1 engine master switch; it would have been obvious that it was broken internally and the only thing holding the switch in the 'on' or 'off' position was gravity. Accidentally bumping the switch; or encountering turbulence inflight; may have produced an undesired outcome. 2) The item deferred under defect (engine manual control switch) is physically located on the overhead panel; and is not the switch that was written up as inoperative in the gripe. These actions were not performed correctly. If they had been done correctly by overnight maintenance; this flight could have departed on schedule this morning. As of this writing; we are delayed 6 hours waiting for parts to be flown in from another station. This delay was expensive and avoidable.

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.

Attributes
ACN	827446
Time
Date	200903
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine Control
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 14000 Flight Crew Type 200
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A319 captain reports discovering on preflight that broken engine master switch spring had been deferred under MEL for engine man control switch. These switches are completely different and the engine master is not deferrable.