Date: 201911
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Flight conditions: VMC
Aircraft: A321
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
Airspace: Class B ZZZ
Aircraft component: Service/Access Door
Component problem: Malfunctioning
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Human factors: Time Pressure
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Pre-flight
Result: Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Human Factors; Company Policy
Primary problem: Aircraft

Narrative: At the gate in ZZZ; we were about to push back with doors closed; but the parking brake still set. Ground crew notified us that they were unable to close the access panel for the air conditioning. They explained that they called for maintenance to come check it out. We waited for a while; then I suggested that I go look at it. I went down and looked at the door and could see that the receiver was so low that the door could not be lifted flush with the fuselage. I did not attempt to latch the door and returned to the cockpit to inform the Captain. The Captain was on the phone on hold with maintenance. I had explained what I had found; so the Captain decided to wait for maintenance to inspect the problem. As we were waiting; I noticed the gate agent was giving the thumbs up to shut the door. This concerned me; wondering if someone had forced the door closed. So I got up and went back down the stairs to see how they remedied the situation. Once I got on the ground I was met by a maintenance personnel; who I asked if it was his job and he verified that he was the maintenance personnel whose first question to me was whether or not we had written up the problem. I told him no because we were unaware whether or not anything was broken. Then I asked him to show me how he closed the door; which he informed me that the ground personnel were too mechanically inept to understand why it would not close. I proceeded to instruct him to show me how he closed the door; in which he avoided the door and decided to show me an access panel on the engine and how the doors operate. I told him I wanted him to show me how he closed the access panel to the air conditioner specifically; which he was very hesitant to comply with. After asking twice; he finally opened the door and was explaining how the latch works. I asked him to close the door; he left and grabbed a flat head screw driver and used it to force the rotating portion of the latch into the closed position. After that I asked the ground crew if it is normally this hard to close; in which they responded no. I; then; went back to the cockpit and explained to the Captain what I had witnessed. The Captain was actively talking to [Company] Maintenance on the phone. Directly behind me; as I sat down; the maintenance personnel had come up to speak to the Captain. The maintenance personnel proceeded to explain to the Captain that nothing was wrong and everything was operational. The maintenance personnel had asked again if we had written up the problem; which we said no. The Captain explained to [Company] Maintenance on the phone at the same time that the ZZZ maintenance personnel is saying that there is nothing wrong with the airplane. In which; [Company] Maintenance (I cannot remember if it was Dispatch or Maintenance that he was talking to) said that it sounded good and thanks for the call. The Captain told me that the Maintenance in ZZZ had cleared the airplane to fly; so we will continue. In addition; there was no urgency on our part to make a commuting flight home because we had four hours to wait in ZZZ1 before we could even commute home; so there was essentially no hurry. I would like to add that the ZZZ Maintenance personnel seemed to be in quite a hurry for us to leave; and I could tell he did not want to converse with me about the issue. It felt like he wanted to pass the issue on to someone else. I also noticed his demeanor with the Captain was much more lighthearted and accepting than his conversation with me on the ground.Better trained Contract Maintenance personnel.




Synopsis: Flight Crew flying A321 aircraft encountered possible problem with air conditioning access door.