Narrative:

I refused aircraft for an MEL item. After reviewing the MEL my first officer and I determined that there would be no way for the fas to access the cockpit in case of an emergency such as pilot incapacitation or evacuation and we agreed we were not comfortable proceeding. Additionally; prior to making our decision I had consulted with our fas; the chief pilot; dispatch; maintenance control and the flight office and shared my findings with my first officer. After we refused the aircraft crew scheduling wanted to reassign us to fly ZZZ to ZZZ1 and extend our trip an extra day. Rather than fix the aircraft they were trying to find another crew to fly the aircraft. It turns out the deferral had been in the logbook [for 5 days] and had flown 18 legs. Many people I consulted with while determining whether to take the aircraft or not admitted that they had not even thought of the fact that there was no alternate procedure to access the flight deck.I then received a call from the chief pilot with a possible solution. It would address one of our initial concerns being both pilots becoming incapacitated due to smoke in the cockpit. It turns out we had a fellow pilot trying to get to training and he offered to sit in the jumpseat and wear his oxygen mask for the duration of the flight. Additionally; he would also have quick access to the door locking pin and be able to operate it for us. My first officer and I discussed the option and we determined we would be agreeable to operate the aircraft. In conclusion it is my belief that this MEL is outdated. Without an alternate means to access the cockpit I believe we are putting the passengers and crew at risk should something happen to both pilots.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported refusing an aircraft with an MEL item that did not allow Flight Attendants access to the cockpit in case of emergency and felt the MEL was outdated.

Narrative: I refused aircraft for an MEL item. After reviewing the MEL my first officer and I determined that there would be no way for the FAs to access the cockpit in case of an emergency such as pilot incapacitation or evacuation and we agreed we were not comfortable proceeding. Additionally; prior to making our decision I had consulted with our FAs; the Chief Pilot; dispatch; Maintenance Control and the flight office and shared my findings with my first officer. After we refused the aircraft crew scheduling wanted to reassign us to fly ZZZ to ZZZ1 and extend our trip an extra day. Rather than fix the aircraft they were trying to find another crew to fly the aircraft. It turns out the deferral had been in the logbook [for 5 days] and had flown 18 legs. Many people I consulted with while determining whether to take the aircraft or not admitted that they had not even thought of the fact that there was no alternate procedure to access the flight deck.I then received a call from the Chief Pilot with a possible solution. It would address one of our initial concerns being both pilots becoming incapacitated due to smoke in the cockpit. It turns out we had a fellow pilot trying to get to training and he offered to sit in the jumpseat and wear his oxygen mask for the duration of the flight. Additionally; he would also have quick access to the door locking pin and be able to operate it for us. My first officer and I discussed the option and we determined we would be agreeable to operate the aircraft. In conclusion it is my belief that this MEL is outdated. Without an alternate means to access the cockpit I believe we are putting the passengers and crew at risk should something happen to both pilots.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.