Narrative:

Lately my air carrier management has been increasingly questioning captain's decisions on aircraft refusals. If one were to refuse an aircraft for an inoperable window heat; I would venture that a call would be received by a flight manager questioning the refusal. After seeing the effect of what this one minor 'MEL' item had yesterday; it opened my eyes even further to the necessity of considering all possibilities. Upon arrival the captain's forward window completely fogged over to the point that one could not see clearly out of it. Even with using the windshield wiper the window did not clear properly. Taxiing to the gate was even more interesting as the fogging continued. The captain had to look out his side window to see properly. I have photos of what the event looked liked once we were on the ground. I will try to forward the photos to the appropriate members. In addition to the captain's window heat being inoperative; this aircraft also had an aft cargo door MEL'ed showing open on ECAM while it was closed; right side high pressure valve locked in the open position; class ii flight ctrl message; and a few cabin items. Oh; and the plane went through a major maintenance base at least two times yesterday. The FAA deemed an inoperative window heat system as a MEL-able item. I guessed they did not consider the effect of warm; humid air has on a cold soaked windshield. With all this going on once we landed; we both looked at each other and wondered if we had a clearance to land. Tower had not said anything to us but there still is a question in my mind.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 Captain's window heat was inoperative which caused it to fog over completely after landing thus obscuring the Captain's forward view except through his open side window. Maintenance MEL'ed the window heat.

Narrative: Lately my Air Carrier Management has been increasingly questioning Captain's decisions on aircraft refusals. If one were to refuse an aircraft for an inoperable window heat; I would venture that a call would be received by a Flight Manager questioning the refusal. After seeing the effect of what this one minor 'MEL' item had yesterday; it opened my eyes even further to the necessity of considering all possibilities. Upon arrival the Captain's forward window completely fogged over to the point that one could not see clearly out of it. Even with using the windshield wiper the window did not clear properly. Taxiing to the gate was even more interesting as the fogging continued. The Captain had to look out his side window to see properly. I have photos of what the event looked liked once we were on the ground. I will try to forward the photos to the appropriate members. In addition to the Captain's window heat being inoperative; this aircraft also had an aft cargo door MEL'ed showing open on ECAM while it was closed; right side high pressure valve locked in the open position; Class II FLT CTRL message; and a few cabin items. Oh; and the plane went through a major maintenance base at least two times yesterday. The FAA deemed an inoperative window heat system as a MEL-able item. I guessed they did not consider the effect of warm; humid air has on a cold soaked windshield. With all this going on once we landed; we both looked at each other and wondered if we had a clearance to land. Tower had not said anything to us but there still is a question in my mind.

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.