Maintenance Powerplant; Maintenance Airframe
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Procedure; Human Factors; Manuals; Aircraft; Equipment / Tooling
At the beginning of my shift I was notified of a road trip to ZZZ1 for a Flap Halfspeed message on a CRJ-700. After finally getting to the aircraft; we verified the problem and started our troubleshooting by removing the Panels beneath the Right Hand Flap Brake Position Sensing Unit (BPSU). After removing; I saw F4 red thermal tape wrapped around the lower wiring harness. After I removed the tape I found multiple broken wires and a poorly soldered splice. I notified Maintenance (MX) Control of my discovery and waited for a response regarding corrective action. After communication between myself; MX Control and the leads in the hangar; it was determined that a general splice could not be used; and that we would have to rebuild the harness. MX Control told me that they found a Service Bulletin (SB) that averaged 31 hours to rebuild the harness and they were sending another plane there to deliver the parts to us. We were also told not to begin any maintenance on the plane; because there was a chance of getting a Ferry permit to return the plane to ZZZ so it could be worked on by an Avionics Technician inside our hangar. After waiting over six hours; we were notified in the [morning] that there was no possibility of a Ferry permit due to the weather; and that we would need to begin repairing the harness as soon as possible. I verified multiple times with our MX Controller that they wanted us to perform the repair at an outstation; on the ramp; in winter; and having very minimal avionics experience at best between my assistant and myself. The Controller confirmed that we needed to start the repair. After removing the damaged section of the old harness; we started the buildup of the new one. It was at this time we realized that we didn't have all the parts we needed. After discussing it with the hangar leads; we realized that the Service Bulletin Kit we were using did not include the repair for our harness; but only for the one above it. At this point we realized that the Service Bulletin that was sent to us could not be used to repair the harness that was damaged. We continued to wait multiple hours for MX Control to find alternate means of compliance; before we finally asked for and were granted relief. The event occurred due to a lack of communication and planning on Maintenance Control's part. Knowing the complexity of this build up and the time necessary to comply with it; the aircraft should have been fixed under better conditions; by an experienced Avionics' Technician. When I returned to work today; I was notified that the Aircraft had been ferried here the night before. This should have been Maintenance Control's plan of action the very same moment they realized what the repair was going to take.
The reporter stated they were unable to complete repairs because the wrong parts were shipped to them. The reporter also identified the acronym (BPSU) that was used in the text so there is a better understanding of what is meant in the report.
Myself and one other mechanic were on duty starting at XA:30; while one other mechanic was on vacation and the other two mechanics scheduled for the same shift were already at ZZZ1 waiting on Maintenance Control to give them orders when around XF:00 myself and my fellow coworker were sent to relieve the other crew already at ZZZ1 who had been on the job for around 30 hours by this point. As me and my coworker took a charter flight we arrived around XI:00; were brought up to speed on the electrical issue. The first crew then took the charter flight back. Myself and my coworker then started in on building this harness which we soon came to find out was extremely difficult for we did not have the skills of an avionics expert and the inexperience in such a system so complex. After building the harness which had taken all night inside [FBO hangar] which we were grateful they allowed us to use. We went outside to the aircraft which had been parked on the ramp all night. We started to try and figure out the splices only to come across the problem of it being too cold for the shrink wrap to actually shrink properly and our tools to properly work. After being outside for 2 to 3 hours we decided to time out after it was past our 16 hour mark. Maintenance Control decided to send us to a hotel around XT:30 and we were granted rest only to return to the aircraft after to continue working outside when temperatures were around the low twenties. We return [10 hours later] to continue working and after hours spent outside splicing and taking breaks in between to warm up we finally finished the splicing only to ops check the flaps system still not working properly. Our controller from Maintenance control after becoming frustrated with us after we asked them what they want us to do next; told us they had no idea and told us to figure it out and then passed us off to another controller. Maintenance control then decided to change out the BPSU which we did not feel comfortable with changing for we had never done it and it had to be RII as well. My coworker and Myself informed Maintenance control several times that we did not feel comfortable but the pressure to do it anyways continued until they decided to call our upper management over us because thoughts were in place that we just wanted to skip out on doing the maintenance. As myself explained again that we did not feel comfortable; my fellow coworker started to come down with flu like symptoms so he requested medical attention when Maintenance Control told him that he was on his own and he had to call Ops himself and hung up on him. My coworker called Ops and after getting a brief checkup was instructed to go to a medical center to get checked out. I had to drive my coworker about 25 to 30 minutes one way to the urgent care at the hospital; drive back to where the aircraft was and wait for an hour and a half and then drive and pick back up my coworker. I instructed Maintenance control of the issue and they informed me two people from ZZZ2 were coming to relieve us and to sign off what we had done and wait to do a turn over. After I picked my coworker back up and returned we signed off what we did and then talked to Maintenance control about how we were getting home. We were told to take 8 hours rest and then we decided we were to drive back because we had a lot of stuff that belonged to ZZZ Stores and needed to be returned there. We were told that we would have a rental car ready for us to pick up after we took 8 hours rest and instructed to drag all of our stuff to the hotel with us. After we took our 8 hours rest I called Maintenance control for them to tell us that they never got a rental car because the rental car company was out of cars to go one way. Myself and my fellow coworker then called our management in hopes of getting some actual useful help for Maintenance control appeared to not be doing their job. We went to the airport to try and get some form of car only to not be able toget one. At this point it was [very late at night] and we were instructed to go back to the hotel and when the rental car company opened [in the morning]; Maintenance Control would have a rental car set up. We woke up and called Maintenance Control to find out that 3rd shift Maintenance Control never turned our information over to 1st shift and never heard anything about setting up a rental car for us and then we were instructed to drag everything back to the airport where [the aircraft] was going to repo back to ZZZ2 then to ZZZ. After we took [the aircraft] to ZZZ2 we then turned around 3 hours later and took a flight on the aircraft back to ZZZ arriving [in the late evening].The event occurred because a Ferry permit was not obtained to begin with while the aircraft was still in flying conditions before decisions from Maintenance Control was to cut the electrical harness. Also with the inexperienced Maintenance controllers; some of the problems we encountered could have been solved if proper procedures as of the turnover of information we give them would have been passed on from controller to controller.
On a field trip to investigate a 'Flap Half Speed Message' on a CRJ-700; aircraft maintenance technicians found broken wires and poorly soldered connections in the Brake Position Sensing Unit (BPSU). Unable to repair the component due to the wrong parts being sent; the aircraft was ferried to the company maintenance center for repairs.