Narrative:

In the interest of safety; I refused an aircraft for an inoperative APU. Terrain considerations as well as being a night flight were the primary safety considerations. Having both a backup electric and pneumatic source was my primary concern in obtaining an a/C with an operable APU. After the required consultation with dispatch as well as maintenance; I was dispatched a different aircraft which was more than safe and acceptable for our flight. Another consideration in my decision making was the possibility of leaving the aircraft overnight at an airport under possible extreme cold weather conditions under -15 degree C. I did not want to leave an aircraft under those conditions overnight without an inoperable APU and possibly pose a problem for the outbound crew the next morning. On a positive note; now having the ability to access maintenance information for any aircraft at any time via [software] is priceless. An extremely useful functionality that I've greatly advocated to be returned to us. Dispatched thanked me immensely for the early notification in plenty of time as not to incur any delay due to a shorter notice refusal. On a highly negative note; this aircraft should never have been dispatched that night in my opinion for the reasons stated above. The company has to do a much better job of not setting up crews and ultimately themselves for failure. The operation could have been negatively affected the following day simply because parties allowed a non-APU aircraft to be dispatched to and stay overnight at an extreme cold weather station.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reported that they refused an aircraft due to an inoperable APU.

Narrative: In the interest of safety; I refused an aircraft for an inoperative APU. Terrain considerations as well as being a night flight were the primary safety considerations. Having both a backup electric and pneumatic source was my primary concern in obtaining an A/C with an operable APU. After the required consultation with dispatch as well as Maintenance; I was dispatched a different aircraft which was more than safe and acceptable for our flight. Another consideration in my decision making was the possibility of leaving the aircraft overnight at an airport under possible extreme cold weather conditions under -15 degree C. I did not want to leave an aircraft under those conditions overnight without an inoperable APU and possibly pose a problem for the outbound crew the next morning. On a positive note; now having the ability to access maintenance information for any aircraft at any time via [software] is PRICELESS. An extremely useful functionality that I've greatly advocated to be returned to us. Dispatched thanked me immensely for the early notification in plenty of time as not to incur any delay due to a shorter notice refusal. On a highly negative note; this aircraft should never have been dispatched that night in my opinion for the reasons stated above. The company has to do a much better job of not setting up crews and ultimately themselves for failure. The operation could have been negatively affected the following day simply because parties allowed a non-APU aircraft to be dispatched to and stay overnight at an extreme cold weather station.

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.