<< >> NASA ASRS Report 947082, May 2011

An A320 crew found four fire extinguishing squib circuit breakers open in flight. The crew determined maintenance had opened them earlier in the day and so using the captain's emergency authority reset the breakers.

Attributes
ACN	947082
Time
Date	201105
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Circuit Breaker / Fuse / Thermocouple
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 170 Flight Crew Total 13000 Flight Crew Type 3650
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100 Flight Crew Total 13500 Flight Crew Type 8000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

During a break at cruise alt the first officer noticed that four circuit breakers on the 121VU panel were out. The breakers; all in a row; were Q41;Q42;Q43;Q44. These were the squibs for both engine fire systems. We contacted maintenance via ACARS and after his research he determined the breakers had not tripped but had probably been left open after maintenance that occurred earlier in the morning. He asked that I use my authority to close the breakers and thus regain fire fighting ability for the engines. We did so. The breaker location is right near the edge of the panel. More or less right under your nose. I suppose several flights flew with these open.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 crew found four fire extinguishing squib circuit breakers open in flight. The crew determined Maintenance had opened them earlier in the day and so using the Captain's emergency authority reset the breakers.

Narrative: During a break at cruise alt the First Officer noticed that four circuit breakers on the 121VU panel were out. The breakers; all in a row; were Q41;Q42;Q43;Q44. These were the squibs for both engine fire systems. We contacted Maintenance via ACARS and after his research he determined the breakers had not tripped but had probably been left open after maintenance that occurred earlier in the morning. He asked that I use my authority to close the breakers and thus regain fire fighting ability for the engines. We did so. The breaker location is right near the edge of the panel. More or less right under your nose. I suppose several flights flew with these open.

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.