B737-800
Flight Crew Total 10450
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors
I was pilot flying during this event. I was resting my arm on the flap lever; inputting information into the FMS. I felt the flap handle move aft; the aircraft 'raised up a bit;' and the flap position indicator moved from the up position toward the 1 degree mark on the gauge. I immediately moved the handle down into the detent position. I pulled back on the handle to ensure that it was completely in the correct position. This confirmed to me that the flap handle had not been properly seated after takeoff cleanup. We were at FL390; 0.79 mach and 240 KTS. This whole event lasted less than 3 seconds.1
In cruise flight at FL390; we received clearance direct to a fix on the XXX Arrival. I was making an address to the passengers at that same time. The First Officer as pilot flying entered the new fix in the CDU and as he pulled his left hand back his wrist or hand brushed the Flap Control Lever and it momentarily dropped back the Flaps 1 position. The aircraft bumped momentarily before the First Officer could return the lever to the Flaps Zero position. There was no aural overspeed indication and the Leading Edge Device (Amber) in Transit Light did not ever illuminate. We notified Dispatch via free text message of the occurrence and asked for them to advise Maintenance. We entered the occurrence in the logbook and radioed Aircraft Maintenance of the event upon arrival at the gate.
B737-800 First Officer inadvertently bumped the flap handle while entering data into the FMC during cruise; causing it to move out of the 'up' detent.