A B737-700 crew was notified by a dead heading captain that a crack was seen inflight on the number ...

Attributes
ACN	895066
Time
Date	201006
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cowling
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 188
Person 2
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 156 Flight Crew Type 13000
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

The aircraft arrived about three hours late due to weather. As a jumpseating captain was getting off the airplane; he mentioned that a passenger had pointed out a crack on a piece of plastic on the number two engine nacelle. My captain viewed the crack from the cabin with the jumpseater who had been told of the crack. They both agreed that it looked like it had previously been 'stop drilled' by maintenance and was not a problem. Enroute we discussed the issue and decided to have maintenance have a look at it at our destination. We gave the airplane to another crew and told them about it before maintenance arrived. We learned later that the airplane was taken out of service.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-700 crew was notified by a dead heading Captain that a crack was seen inflight on the number two engine nacelle below the leading edge. They viewed the crack from the cabin and deemed it repaired; but on arrival at the next destination the aircraft was removed from service to repair the crack.

Narrative: The aircraft arrived about three hours late due to weather. As a jumpseating Captain was getting off the airplane; he mentioned that a passenger had pointed out a crack on a piece of plastic on the number two engine nacelle. My Captain viewed the crack from the cabin with the Jumpseater who had been told of the crack. They both agreed that it looked like it had previously been 'stop drilled' by Maintenance and was not a problem. Enroute we discussed the issue and decided to have Maintenance have a look at it at our destination. We gave the airplane to another crew and told them about it before Maintenance arrived. We learned later that the airplane was taken out of service.

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.