Narrative:

While performing the acceptance preflight of this aircraft and reviewing the mels that were on the aircraft; an incorrect MEL was found on the aircraft. The incorrect deferral was relating to the emergency floor lights. The deferral that was on the aircraft was MEL 33-50-00-2; which refers to the battery powered floor emergency lights. I asked the flight attendant which emergency floor lights were installed on the aircraft and she responded that the photo-luminescent emergency floor strips were installed. I then looked and verified this information myself and placed a call to maintenance. When maintenance answered the phone I explained the situation. The maintenance controllers solution was to have me cross out the MEL number on the deferral sticker and put the correct MEL (33-50-01) on the same sticker. The sticker already looked like someone had done that at some point. In hindsight; I believe that the mechanic that filled out the original sticker had first written down the correct MEL number; but then changed it; since it appeared to be written with the same pen. So I told maintenance control that I was concerned about the legibility of the sticker if I was just to write over the sticker and would like to have someone come out and fill out a new sticker. He acted like this was very unnecessary and was very annoyed about it; but obliged and sent out a mechanic. While we were waiting for the mechanic to get to the airplane; I decided that it would be best to have a write-up in the logbook to document the change in the MEL number. So I wrote a discrepancy; 'airplane has deferral 33-50-00-2 but does not have battery-powered emergency lights.' the mechanic that deferred the emergency lights either did not read or understand the MEL. Make sure that mechanics and pilots are reading the MEL and not rushing to just get the aircraft back in service; but using the MEL correctly to return the aircraft to an airworthy condition.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Captain reports about an incorrect MEL deferral of the Emergency Floor Lights on their EMB-145 aircraft. Floor lights were MEL'd under 33-50-00-02 which refers to Battery powered Floor Emergency Lights. Flight Attendant noted the floor lights were actually a Photo-luminescent Emergency floor strips. Correct MEL should have been 33-50-01.

Narrative: While performing the acceptance preflight of this aircraft and reviewing the MELs that were on the aircraft; an incorrect MEL was found on the aircraft. The incorrect deferral was relating to the Emergency Floor Lights. The deferral that was on the aircraft was MEL 33-50-00-2; which refers to the battery powered floor emergency lights. I asked the Flight Attendant which Emergency floor lights were installed on the aircraft and she responded that the Photo-Luminescent Emergency Floor strips were installed. I then looked and verified this information myself and placed a call to Maintenance. When Maintenance answered the phone I explained the situation. The Maintenance Controllers solution was to have me cross out the MEL number on the Deferral sticker and put the correct MEL (33-50-01) on the same sticker. The sticker already looked like someone had done that at some point. In hindsight; I believe that the Mechanic that filled out the original sticker had first written down the correct MEL number; but then changed it; since it appeared to be written with the same pen. So I told Maintenance Control that I was concerned about the legibility of the sticker if I was just to write over the sticker and would like to have someone come out and fill out a new sticker. He acted like this was very unnecessary and was very annoyed about it; but obliged and sent out a Mechanic. While we were waiting for the Mechanic to get to the airplane; I decided that it would be best to have a write-up in the Logbook to document the change in the MEL number. So I wrote a discrepancy; 'Airplane has deferral 33-50-00-2 but does not have battery-powered emergency lights.' The Mechanic that deferred the Emergency lights either did not read or understand the MEL. Make sure that Mechanics and Pilots are reading the MEL and not rushing to just get the aircraft back in service; but using the MEL correctly to return the aircraft to an Airworthy condition.

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.