Narrative:

First officer noticed loud vibration from avionics cooling system. Mechanic came to cockpit and stated that he would switch blower to over-ride and defer the blower fan. The first officer asked him if he was going to look at the fan or troubleshoot the problem. The mechanic stated no. The first officer insisted that he did and the mechanic complied with a brief inspection. It is unbelievable that deferrals are being written without any inspection what-so-ever of the affected system. Because of this air carrier's maintenance practices and reluctance to fix anything; our passengers experienced at least an hour delay downline and missed connections. The system further degraded enroute to our first destination and mechanics were able to reset it after some time. Of course it failed again on the way to our next destination. I refused the aircraft at that point after the mechanics indicated that they were not being given the time to replace the fan (this was the agreed upon fix). This meant that if I had accepted the aircraft; I would have had another failure on the next leg to a non-maintenance station. Unless this air carrier decides to instill a maintenance culture that supports the technicians and gives them the ability to fix aircraft; versus pressuring them to 'keep the airplane moving' and just deferring everything; I fear that we are going to lose an aircraft full of people.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319's avionics cooling fan was making a loud noise during preflight. The aircraft's avionics cooling further degraded on the next two legs but maintenance did not address the issue. The crew refused the aircraft for their third leg because of the deteriorating cooling system.

Narrative: First Officer noticed loud vibration from avionics cooling system. Mechanic came to cockpit and stated that he would switch blower to over-ride and defer the blower fan. The First Officer asked him if he was going to look at the fan or troubleshoot the problem. The Mechanic stated no. The First Officer insisted that he did and the Mechanic complied with a brief inspection. It is unbelievable that deferrals are being written without any inspection what-so-ever of the affected system. Because of this Air Carrier's maintenance practices and reluctance to fix anything; our passengers experienced at least an hour delay downline and missed connections. The system further degraded enroute to our first destination and mechanics were able to reset it after some time. Of course it failed again on the way to our next destination. I refused the aircraft at that point after the mechanics indicated that they were not being given the time to replace the fan (this was the agreed upon fix). This meant that if I had accepted the aircraft; I would have had another failure on the next leg to a non-maintenance station. Unless this Air Carrier decides to instill a maintenance culture that supports the technicians and gives them the ability to fix aircraft; versus pressuring them to 'keep the airplane moving' and just deferring everything; I fear that we are going to lose an aircraft full of people.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.