EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Other / Unknown; Time Pressure
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure
When I arrived at our departure gate at show time I discovered I was assigned a brand new First Officer for IOE training. I received no notification from the company via phone; email; Crew Planning or Crew Scheduling of this scheduled IOE event. We passed the exiting crew at the jetway door and they stated it was a good plane; no issues. I gave the new First Officer a briefing and told him I would take care of the preflight for now until we had more time to complete the required training properly. We then completed a crew briefing with the flight attendants and I went out and completed the preflight inspection. I returned to the cockpit and began discussing normal setup procedures and completing required briefings and checklists. We had actually got all the setups; briefs and load information completed on time with a minute to spare. Not bad for a first day/first leg of IOE with a brand new pilot and no notification. As we were about to begin pushing one of the wing marshallers told the tug driver to hold the push and informed him that he had found the oil service door on the # 1 engine open on his final walk around. Up to this point in time I was unaware of any maintenance or service checks being completed on our aircraft. So I notified Ramp and called Operations to please bring the jetway back to the aircraft. I also called Dispatch and Maintenance Control immediately to advise of the situation. I opened my cockpit side window to see if I could verify the oil service door was open. From the cockpit I could not see the panel open. The ramp person who found it said it was about halfway closed when he noticed it. Shortly after that the mechanic arrived I leaned out my window again and saw that about an inch of the silver panel was sticking up above the cowling. When I finally made it outside to see it for myself the mechanic said he found the door full open with a screw driver inside and no oil cap anywhere to be found. I asked him who was working on the aircraft and why was I not advised work was being done and no one took the logbook to enter any sign offs. He said no one had been out to work on the aircraft. Upon further inspection I found that a two day inspection had been completed elsewhere the night before and the aircraft had flown three legs already that morning. The logbook sign off indicated engine TWO (not one) had been serviced with oil on the overnight two day inspection. Both oil levels on the EICAS showed 10.4 quarts oil. There were no entries for oil service on engine 1.When I notified the company they seemed to think it was still there from the previous night's 2 day inspection. I personally have a very hard time believing that I missed this on the preflight inspection despite the fact the ramp person who did find it said the door was mostly closed as opposed to the mechanic who said it was fully propped open. My only thought here is maybe when the cowls open for reverse thrust it was enough to push the door closed. The screw driver found did have some big 'cuts or pressure imprints where something had pushed on it hard. I also cannot believe that this was left and missed by the mechanics completing the two day check and the previous crew on a 1st flight of the day; preflight inspection and two more following post-flight inspections then ALSO being missed repeatedly by the other ramp crews looking for damage on there inspections during the turns at their stations on the previous three legs. Again the mechanic did tell me that is how he found it. I noted no damage and new oil cap was found and we departed approximately 1hour and 45mins late. We did off load and reload the passengers during that time. My only write up that went into the logbook was 'oil cap missing from engine 1'.
EMB170 Captain is informed just prior to pushback that the oil service door for the number one engine is open. Further investigation reveals that the oil cap is missing and a screwdriver is in the compartment. Maintenance was not being performed during this stop and indications are that the aircraft arrived in this condition.