A320
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20; Flight Crew Total 13000; Flight Crew Type 2500
Human-Machine Interface; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
General Release Refused / Aircraft Not Accepted; General Maintenance Action; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Company Policy; Aircraft; Human Factors
We got to the airport about 55 minutes before departure. Flight planning and release went normally. I went up to the jet; briefed the flight attendants; and then went into the flight deck. When I sat down; I commented to my First Officer that the window looked opaque. Forward visibility was severely restricted. The sun was shining straight through the window and it appeared that there was a film on both forward flight deck windows. I asked the First Officer to to call for window cleaning; which he did. About 10 minutes later a Mechanic showed up to clean the window. Using glass cleaner and a rag made no difference on the transparency of the window. He said that was the best he could do at that point. I was somewhat sure that visibility would be most impaired with sunlight going straight through the window. Since we would be flying away from the sun I thought that we might be able to take the aircraft if the defect could be deferred. I then called Maintenance Control to see if there was a way to write up the window as having the visibility affected but still deferable at the Captain's discretion. They replied that [when I wrote it up] they would have to deal with it then. It could not be deferred. I ended the call and entered an AML discrepancy 'Visibility through the forward cockpit windows impaired due to hazy coating; cleaning window no help' and advised operations we had done so.Mechanics then returned and tried different methods to clean the window. They tried soap; hot water; alcohol; acetone; wiping with paper towels and even newspaper but the haze on the window was still evident. Even the mechanics commented on how hazy the window was from inside the cockpit. While this was happening; I was keeping the flight attendants; passengers; and Customer Service informed as to what was going on. At one point early in the event; I overheard the passenger agent comment to her Supervisor 'Well; I called Flight Operations Management and his Chief Pilot; maybe they can get him to take it.' A few minutes later an Assistant Chief Pilot [whom I knew personally] called me on the phone. While he didn't push me to take the aircraft; he did say that I should get names of all involved and take pictures of the defect; implying that I would have to defend myself in the future. I have a working relationship with this manager and I personally did not feel pushed by this exchange. However; if I were not familiar with him; the nature of this conversation could most definitely have felt like coercion to take an aircraft that I felt was not airworthy. After I got off the phone the Passenger Service Supervisor came up to me and asked if I was going to take the aircraft now. I said that the defect had to be taken care of before we could go. She said that I was doing a real disservice to the customers. I disagreed. While this was going on the mechanics were still trying to clear the window. It became evident the film I initially thought was there was actually an abrasion to the windows' exterior surfaces. There was also evidence of this abrasion on the leading edge of both forward side windows. The mechanics exhausted their attempt to clean the window. I asked the mechanics if they could polish the window and they said they were not allowed to do that anymore. One of them said that they would have to replace the windows. He also said that this would be impossible as they had no Airbus windows in stock. This is funny because the aircraft was out flying a day later with new windows. At this point the mechanics left and said they were going to conference with Maintenance Control. Several minutes later a new maintenance release came out of the ACARS printer with the log item cleared; stating 'ACTION:CLEANED PER AMM #.' This was obviously not right as the abrasion still existed on the window. Dispatch sent us a message at about the same time asking if the ['fix' was satisfactory to which I replied 'negative'] and subsequentlyrefused the aircraft for the uncorrected window defect. The aircraft was removed from service for the window change and we were assigned a new aircraft several hours later.
The Captain of an A320 was forced to turn down the aircraft for his flight due to the abraded condition of both forward windshields which rendered forward visibility unacceptable.