An A319 captain was shocked and angered that a maintenance supervisor would attempt to override a li...

Narrative:

Upon arrival at the gate and after boarding the aircraft the first officer brought to my attention the log book that had five stickers on it. There were two MEL's for a missing fuel cap that appeared to be redundant. I called dispatch and was passed to maintenance control. The maintenance control mechanic agreed that the MEL's were duplicated and needed to be corrected. I then looked into the other MEL's. The captain's fixed windshield heat had been placed on MEL. I then saw where the captain's sliding windshield had a bubble of delamination on it. This was noted in the logbook and signed off. I noticed a cloudy tail to the delamination and then a hair line crack running from the delamination all the way to the heating wire in the windshield. I wrote up this crack as I was certain that it was out of limits or not previously addressed. A line mechanic arrived and did an initial assessment. He then left with the logbook. When he returned he determined that the aircraft had a glass windshield and was out of tolerance with this crack. We agreed that the plane was not airworthy. Then an individual entered the cockpit and said he was a supervisor. He did not give me his name. He proceeded to discuss the windshield with the line mechanic. Initially he agreed it was a problem. Then he turned to me and said 'if the line mechanic can make it work would I take the aircraft?' I was shocked and a little angry that this man was attempting to override the mechanic and trying to get me to accept an aircraft that he knew was not airworthy. I told him that the aircraft was out of FAA limits and that was the end of it. He then asked me if I was going to take the aircraft. To which I answered no! This supervisor was clearly trying to interfere with a proper decision not to fly an aircraft and play let's make a deal. This individual in my opinion is not fit for the position that he holds and should be disciplined for attempting to place the traveling public in jeopardy; not to mention trying to usurp the line mechanic and ultimately my authority as the captain of this flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 Captain was shocked and angered that a maintenance supervisor would attempt to override a line mechanic's decision to declare the aircraft not airworthy because a delaminated sliding window was out of FAA limits.

Narrative: Upon arrival at the gate and after boarding the aircraft the First Officer brought to my attention the log book that had five stickers on it. There were two MEL's for a missing fuel cap that appeared to be redundant. I called Dispatch and was passed to Maintenance Control. The Maintenance Control mechanic agreed that the MEL's were duplicated and needed to be corrected. I then looked into the other MEL's. The Captain's fixed windshield heat had been placed on MEL. I then saw where the Captain's sliding windshield had a bubble of delamination on it. This was noted in the logbook and signed off. I noticed a cloudy tail to the delamination and then a hair line crack running from the delamination all the way to the heating wire in the windshield. I wrote up this crack as I was certain that it was out of limits or not previously addressed. A line mechanic arrived and did an initial assessment. He then left with the logbook. When he returned he determined that the aircraft had a glass windshield and was out of tolerance with this crack. We agreed that the plane was not airworthy. Then an individual entered the cockpit and said he was a supervisor. He did not give me his name. He proceeded to discuss the windshield with the line mechanic. Initially he agreed it was a problem. Then he turned to me and said 'if the line mechanic can make it work would I take the aircraft?' I was shocked and a little angry that this man was attempting to override the mechanic and trying to get me to accept an aircraft that he knew was not airworthy. I told him that the aircraft was out of FAA limits and that was the end of it. He then asked me if I was going to take the aircraft. To which I answered no! This supervisor was clearly trying to interfere with a proper decision not to fly an aircraft and play let's make a deal. This individual in my opinion is not fit for the position that he holds and should be disciplined for attempting to place the traveling public in jeopardy; not to mention trying to usurp the line mechanic and ultimately my authority as the Captain of this flight.

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	923962
Time
Date	201012
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Environment
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cockpit Window
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural MEL

An A319 captain was shocked and angered that a maintenance supervisor would attempt to override a line mechanic's decision to declare the aircraft not airworthy because a delaminated sliding window was out of FAA limits.