Airbus Industrie Undifferentiated or Other Model
Training / Qualification; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Troubleshooting
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
General Maintenance Action
Procedure; Human Factors
Called out to Aircraft X for an R2 door intermittent arm/disarm indication. Door had a previous write up. Met the Lead Mechanic and Supervisor on the jetway where a verbal Monitor/Challenge briefing was given. Due to the nature of the problem and history; it was agreed that a brief visual check of the arming handle mechanism and wiring would be performed and if NO obvious defects noted; Maintenance would be consulted about an MEL. Upon successful disarming of the door (confirmed by both the Lead and Supervisor) the door was opened without incident. During the visual check the door was in the half open position. Contact was made with the release lever on the door jam and the slide deployed. Release lever actuation is not possible with the door in the full open and locked position. This door was partially opened to gain sufficient access to do the visual check for obvious defects. It is well known regardless of department affiliation that Inadvertent Slide Deployments are a High target/priority item to the company. I would suggest more frequent Web Based Training of every 3 to 4 months as opposed to once a year. I would also suggest additional markings/placards be installed and be visible from more than one angle. The placard installed in the door jam is NOT easily visible from the inside of the airplane from the position I was in at the time of the incident. Lastly; I would suggest that an MEL be applied to any and all door issues if applicable before accomplishing any type of troubleshooting on a thru flight aircraft.
Aircraft X arrived at gate with a repeat write-up for R2 door arming discrepancy between arming lever and ECAM indication. [Name] was assigned to the task and I accompanied him along with our Supervisor to provide the required monitor and challenge. First thing we did was to try to verify the fault by my stationing myself in the flight deck doorway while [Name] operated the arming handle several times. I observed all indications normal. The flight crew had indicated to us that the fault was intermittent. Since the aircraft had extended time on the gate we decided to at least investigate the cause instead of simply trying for an MEL. We went through the proper steps of monitor and challenge as was verified by our Supervisor and opened the door normally with no slide deployment. [Name] reached into the door hinge area and instantly the slide deployed. The hinge area has a cover that blocked my view so I can't say what caused the deployment. But keep in mind that the aircraft had an arming issue that could have meant a rigging issue that lead to the deployment. We weren't actually performing any maintenance at the time only looking to see any obvious issue. The [Maintenance Manual] procedure note says the inflation reservoir pin only has to be installed while doing maintenance. We followed company guidelines to disarm and open the door. No maintenance had been done at this point so pinning the inflation reservoir was not required until we performed any maintenance. The only possible solution I can think of is to pin the reservoir even if just opening the door for any reason disregarding the procedure note.
Two maintenance technicians reported an inadvertent aircraft entry door slide deployment during maintenance troubleshooting activity.