Narrative:

I was contacted by the captain; who took the aircraft from me at the end of my trip. He got hold of me to inform me that he had made a gate return after accepting the aircraft for a left main gear outer door attaching strut that had been noted by another aircraft as hanging down as he taxied out for takeoff. He felt I should know this as I had flown the aircraft three legs this day without any indication of discrepancy. He stated to me that maintenance found that the strut had apparently been tucked out of direct view behind a spring or other fitting on the door (or gear) and eventually had come loose to hang free and visible and had caused some chaffing to the adjacent main tire. Maintenance also noted to him that the strut retaining bolt was in place where it should have been (i.e. Not missing) but not attaching the strut in its normal position. They further noted to him that that strut is normally detached; as it was; for a brake change but that operation had not been done recently. The flight departed late because of a logbook discrepancy that I found late in my preflight preparation due to a number of distractions. I found that the latest airworthiness certification was out of date and contacted maintenance control. A mechanic was dispatched with an original logbook page showing that a service check and airworthiness certification was completed the previous night or early morning. Neither the copilot nor I could find the matching onboard page. The mechanic took the onboard book and looked behind the closed out MEL log to find the errant matching copy. With this done we left the gate (albeit late) with a preflighted and ostensibly airworthy aircraft. Two more preflights by a competent first officer and we were done with our trip and the aircraft was accepted by this reporting captain as he relayed to me; as captioned above. It is apparent from the narrative above; as relayed to me; that the unattached strut existed from the time I took the aircraft until it was discovered during the preceding captain's taxi-out for takeoff; in as much as the mechanic(s) found the strut's attaching bolt where it should be. If this is true; the strut did not come free by a loss of one of its attaching hardware components. Further supporting the alleged stowage of the strut out of view behind a spring or other structure is the completion of not only our three preflight inspections but also a separate set of eyes by the subsequent first officer prior to their departure.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B717 Captain was notified after the end of his trip the subsequent crew had to return to the gate for maintenance to attend to a main gear outer door attach strut that was hanging down.

Narrative: I was contacted by the Captain; who took the aircraft from me at the end of my trip. He got hold of me to inform me that he had made a gate return after accepting the aircraft for a left main gear outer door attaching strut that had been noted by another aircraft as hanging down as he taxied out for takeoff. He felt I should know this as I had flown the aircraft three legs this day without any indication of discrepancy. He stated to me that maintenance found that the strut had apparently been tucked out of direct view behind a spring or other fitting on the door (or gear) and eventually had come loose to hang free and visible and had caused some chaffing to the adjacent main tire. Maintenance also noted to him that the strut retaining bolt was in place where it should have been (i.e. not missing) but not attaching the strut in its normal position. They further noted to him that that strut is normally detached; as it was; for a brake change but that operation had not been done recently. The flight departed late because of a logbook discrepancy that I found late in my preflight preparation due to a number of distractions. I found that the latest Airworthiness Certification was out of date and contacted Maintenance Control. A Mechanic was dispatched with an original logbook page showing that a Service Check and Airworthiness Certification was completed the previous night or early morning. Neither the Copilot nor I could find the matching onboard page. The Mechanic took the onboard book and looked behind the closed out MEL log to find the errant matching copy. With this done we left the gate (albeit late) with a preflighted and ostensibly Airworthy aircraft. Two more preflights by a competent First Officer and we were done with our trip and the aircraft was accepted by this reporting Captain as he relayed to me; as captioned above. It is apparent from the narrative above; as relayed to me; that the unattached strut existed from the time I took the aircraft until it was discovered during the preceding Captain's taxi-out for takeoff; in as much as the mechanic(s) found the strut's attaching bolt where it should be. If this is true; the strut did not come free by a loss of one of its attaching hardware components. Further supporting the alleged stowage of the strut out of view behind a spring or other structure is the completion of not only our three preflight inspections but also a separate set of eyes by the subsequent First Officer prior to their departure.

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.