Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Time Pressure; Communication Breakdown; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
Earlier today; I received a phone call from my Chief Pilot asking about a plane that I flew over the weekend that had a fuel leak. I explained to him that while we were on a turn; we requested a lavatory service. When the lav tech came out to service the plane; he indicated to me that he was unable to service the lav; nothing would come out. I ended up calling line Maintenance to come out and trouble shoot. Once they arrived and tried to fix the issue I was made aware that they would be unable to fix the issue in a timely manner and said that we would be swapped into a another aircraft. Shortly thereafter; I received a text (which I did not hear) and then a phone call asking me to close out of Software from the company. I then proceeded to log out and started to pack up my stuff to head to the new aircraft when the fueler; who was just outside with the original aircraft; said 'I have something you need to see'. When I followed him outside; he showed me that when he added pressurized fuel to the plane; fuel slowly started coming out of the bottom of the right wing root; about 3 feet down from the fuel panel. I then called line Maintenance back (as they had already left the aircraft) to let them know about the fuel leak and that I was no longer logged into Software and was unable to write up the this new issue. I confirmed with them my gate and that I was the plane with previous lav issue. I said that I would leave a hand written note describing the new fuel issue on the captain's yoke and line Maintenance said that would be fine.This event was caused by the discovery of a new mechanical issue after I was logged out of Software. Contributing factors include: my inability to sign back into Software with an old aircraft after I have been assigned a new one; trying to maintain a timely schedule for the passengers who were moved to another aircraft/gate and trusting that line Maintenance would note the new mechanical issue from my phone call and the hand written note that I left on the yoke and write it up themselves when I am unable. Allowing a pilot to log back into an aircraft after they have already signed out and discover a mechanical issue. Or maybe having Maintenance write up the issue while the pilot is still on the phone when they are notified that the pilot is logged out and unable to write up an issue.
Captain reported being unable to report a Fuel Leak on an aircraft using the electronic log book; causing a cancelled flight and a long delay for the passengers.