An A320 Flight Crew reports refused an aircraft due to the deferral of the cockpit door entry system.
Synopsis
An A320 Flight Crew reports refused an aircraft due to the deferral of the cockpit door entry system.
Narrative
Upon arrival at plane; we were confronted with the cockpit door aural warning not working and the door access panel being disabled. The Flight Attendant stated that she was not comfortable flying in the plane with no way to get into the cockpit if we were incapacitated. The system was deferred. Upon discussion between the Captain and myself I do not believe it is a safe idea to defer such a problem. No one can get in the cockpit if both pilots are incapacitated and in the event of a loss of control on landing/taking off; no one can get into the cockpit either from the inside or outside of the plane if we are unable to get out ourselves. The A320/319 does not have on exterior handle by the First Officer's window to get into the plane. The door will unlock if no power is on the plane; but if the engines are still running after the incident the door cannot be opened and also noone can get in the cockpit to shut down the engines if we are dead/incapacitated. I don't believe a plane would be dispatched if both escape lines were missing (one way of getting out of the plane) and I don't think it is a good idea to dispatch a plane with the above condition.
Second reporter narrative
[We] refused to fly the aircraft with a deferral on the door entry system. The oral warning was inoperative so maintenance deferred it and deactivated the outside entry pad to the cockpit door. If we had flown the aircraft we would now put ourselves in a situation so that if we were incapacitated either in the air or on the ground that no one would be able to enter the cockpit from the outside. Also; there is no way to get into the cockpit from the outside on the aircraft as with Boeing [aircraft] I have flown in the past. I don't believe that this should be a deferrable item on the Airbus. The MEL should be changed to reflect this fact.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.