37000 Feet

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An A320 captain expressed his displeasure at being pushed by three flight managers to accept an aircraft which; on their previous leg; had received an ECAM warning for an overheat condition in the left air conditioning pack which had been previously deferred inoperative. As required by the MEL; the pack was selected off prior to and during the flight on which the overheat warning was received.

Narrative:

The left pack was selected off prior to flight to comply with the MEL deferring it as inoperative. Later; while in flight; we received an ECAM alert for a pack overheat on the inoperative pack. We were surprised to say the least. We complied with the ECAM procedures and monitored the inoperative pack and the overheat condition. As we were scheduled to continue on with this aircraft we sent a message to dispatch refusing the aircraft for the next leg. On arrival to our destination; while at approximately 5;000 ft the duty flight manager sent an ACARS message asking me to rescind my refusal and take the broken aircraft [notwithstanding the] inoperative yet overheating pack. As we were in sterile cockpit at the time we disregarded the message until we we're on the ground with the engines off and all checklists completed. I contacted the dispatcher to see if he had authorized the ACARS message and he said 'no.' I then contacted the duty flight manager to find out why he was pushing me to fly the broken aircraft. Then; as soon as I got off the phone with him; two local flight managers were at the aircraft to tell me to fly the aircraft. I politely spoke to them about the aircraft status and they left. This pilot pushing is unacceptable; especially violating sterile cockpit regulations and having two flight managers come to the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 Captain expressed his displeasure at being pushed by three flight managers to accept an aircraft which; on their previous leg; had received an ECAM warning for an overheat condition in the left air conditioning pack which had been previously deferred inoperative. As required by the MEL; the pack was selected off prior to and during the flight on which the overheat warning was received.

Narrative: The left pack was selected off prior to flight to comply with the MEL deferring it as inoperative. Later; while in flight; we received an ECAM alert for a pack overheat on the inoperative pack. We were surprised to say the least. We complied with the ECAM procedures and monitored the inoperative pack and the overheat condition. As we were scheduled to continue on with this aircraft we sent a message to Dispatch refusing the aircraft for the next leg. On arrival to our destination; while at approximately 5;000 FT the Duty Flight Manager sent an ACARS message asking me to rescind my refusal and take the broken aircraft [notwithstanding the] inoperative yet overheating pack. As we were in sterile cockpit at the time we disregarded the message until we we're on the ground with the engines off and all checklists completed. I contacted the Dispatcher to see if he had authorized the ACARS message and he said 'no.' I then contacted the Duty Flight Manager to find out why he was pushing me to fly the broken aircraft. Then; as soon as I got off the phone with him; two local flight managers were at the aircraft to tell me to fly the aircraft. I politely spoke to them about the aircraft status and they left. This pilot pushing is unacceptable; especially violating sterile cockpit regulations and having two flight managers come to the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.