A B737 captain reported push-back from ATC when he was attempting to circumnavigate severe weather o...

Narrative:

During descent with rain in icing conditions and moderate turbulence and cockpit noise level high due to precipitation on windshield hampering inter-cockpit communications; we asked for clearance to deviate around upcoming weather lying in front of us on the routing. Deviation was granted but then controller became dissatisfied with amount of off-course deviation necessary. [He] told us he saw no weather and therefore told us to rejoin arrival. Informed him we were unable. He tried numerous times during very busy cockpit workload to intimidate us into going through the weather including threatening us. We told him it would be unsafe to resume the arrival from this point and I was not going to disregard the safety of my aircraft; crew; and pax because he didn't think the weather was severe enough to warrant a deviation. We were transferred to approach and received straight-in vectors for an uneventful approach and landing. In 41 years of flying; I have never experienced that level of intimidation and lack of understanding from an ATC controller. Total disregard of fars and captain's authority by ATC controller. Use of intimidation is unprofessional and inexcusable.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain reported push-back from ATC when he was attempting to circumnavigate severe weather on his route. The Captain held his ground and refused to fly through the weather.

Narrative: During descent with rain in icing conditions and moderate turbulence and cockpit noise level high due to precipitation on windshield hampering inter-cockpit communications; we asked for clearance to deviate around upcoming weather lying in front of us on the routing. Deviation was granted but then Controller became dissatisfied with amount of off-course deviation necessary. [He] told us he saw no weather and therefore told us to rejoin arrival. Informed him we were unable. He tried numerous times during very busy cockpit workload to intimidate us into going through the weather including threatening us. We told him it would be unsafe to resume the arrival from this point and I was not going to disregard the safety of my aircraft; crew; and pax because he didn't think the weather was severe enough to warrant a deviation. We were transferred to approach and received straight-in vectors for an uneventful approach and landing. In 41 years of flying; I have never experienced that level of intimidation and lack of understanding from an ATC Controller. Total disregard of FARs and Captain's authority by ATC controller. Use of intimidation is unprofessional and inexcusable.

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	883162
Time
Date	201004
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

A B737 captain reported push-back from ATC when he was attempting to circumnavigate severe weather on his route. The captain held his ground and refused to fly through the weather.