A CL65 captain refuse an aircraft with an inoperative flight deck communications system because he d...

Narrative:

Due to the ground to flight deck intercomm being inoperative I felt that a pushback from the gate could not be conducted safely. It was night-time; and though there was adequate lighting in the immediate gate area; I felt that after being pushed from the gate that hand signals would not be adequately visible from the flight deck. As a result I refused the aircraft due to an inadequate safety margin being available. In addition; maintenance control; the on duty dispatch supervisor; and the station supervisor all tried to 'push' and 'persuade' me into conducting the pushback even after I told them that I didn't feel safe doing so. I told dispatch that I'd be happy to conduct the flight with another airplane or only after the intercomm was fixed. I felt offended and disrespected by my own company at having to explain to three different people that the decision was mine and I make it with safety as my number one concern.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CL65 Captain refuse an aircraft with an inoperative flight deck communications system because he did not feel the aircraft could be safely pushed back from the gate at night. Company personnel were attempting to coerce the reporter to accept the aircraft.

Narrative: Due to the ground to flight deck intercomm being inoperative I felt that a pushback from the gate could not be conducted safely. It was night-time; and though there was adequate lighting in the immediate gate area; I felt that after being pushed from the gate that hand signals would not be adequately visible from the flight deck. As a result I refused the aircraft due to an inadequate safety margin being available. In addition; Maintenance Control; the on duty Dispatch Supervisor; and the Station Supervisor all tried to 'push' and 'persuade' me into conducting the pushback even after I told them that I didn't feel safe doing so. I told Dispatch that I'd be happy to conduct the flight with another airplane or only after the intercomm was fixed. I felt offended and disrespected by my own company at having to explain to three different people that the decision was mine and I make it with safety as my number one concern.

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.

Attributes
ACN	860423
Time
Date	200911
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet CL65 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Interphone System
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Other / Unknown

A CL65 captain refuse an aircraft with an inoperative flight deck communications system because he did not feel the aircraft could be safely pushed back from the gate at night. Company personnel were attempting to coerce the reporter to accept the aircraft.