Narrative:

First officer began walkaround and observed a significant amount of water pouring from the seams of the access panels near the packs. He told me that in ten years of pre-flights on this fleet he had only seen this situation once before and the problem was a broken water line. I stopped boarding and we contacted maintenance. The first officer returned to the cockpit and told me about an encounter. We then both went down to look at the leak and met an operations supervisor who told us that since I stopped boarding; we would be charged with the delay. We told him about the problem; the lack of cooperation and the concern about loading a full airplane on a hot day with a possible pack problem.the three of us walked to another nearby B757 that had no water leaking from the pack area. We all concluded that this was not a normal condition for our aircraft. The operations supervisor went back to operations to notify maintenance. He returned about 15 minutes later to tell us that maintenance would take no further action unless I refused the airplane.I called dispatch and got maintenance control on the line and explained my concerns and told both that I would refuse the airplane if that's what it took to get something done. Before the refusal process was complete; a new maintenance supervisor came on duty and listened patiently to the story and offered to open up the panel of our aircraft to verify it was normal. We found two female threaded nozzles spraying water onto the [air conditioning bay door] panels. One of us thought it might be a good idea to open up another B757 belly to compare and found a totally different configuration where the excess water was piped away into a larger duct that went aft; the pack area was dry.the mechanics said they had to go and double check that our aircraft was indeed in a normal configuration. Mechanic later returned and told us it was a normal configuration. He also mentioned that in the future; any water leaking from the panels should be considered normal. I disagree with this because we might have had an aircraft in the other configuration that indeed had a broken or leaking drain line. Since then; we have flown another B757 which has also been dry in the pack area in similar hot and humid conditions.I am concerned that in addition to the mechanics disregard for my experienced first officer's (and my) concerns regarding the aircraft that we were being pressured by operations; customer service and maintenance to take the aircraft without confirming that the situation was indeed 'normal' for that aircraft.I also take issue with the mechanic telling us that any water seen leaking in that area should be considered normal when clearly it is not based on the aircraft configuration. Finally; I have two questions: 1) why should my first officer just conclude that water leaking from this area is normal when he personally has seen a broken drain line that had the same effect?2) how can one identify other aircraft that have this configuration?

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Captain and First Officer report about observing a significant amount of water pouring from the seams of the air conditioning bay doors and latches under their B757-200. Two Mechanics dismissed their concerns as a frivolous issue without investigating further. An Operations Supervisor was pressuring them to take the aircraft. Captain was informed Maintenance would not return unless he refused the aircraft.

Narrative: First Officer began walkaround and observed a significant amount of water pouring from the seams of the access panels near the packs. He told me that in ten years of pre-flights on this fleet he had only seen this situation once before and the problem was a broken water line. I stopped boarding and we contacted Maintenance. The First Officer returned to the cockpit and told me about an encounter. We then both went down to look at the leak and met an Operations Supervisor who told us that since I stopped boarding; we would be charged with the delay. We told him about the problem; the lack of cooperation and the concern about loading a full airplane on a hot day with a possible pack problem.The three of us walked to another nearby B757 that had no water leaking from the pack area. We all concluded that this was not a normal condition for our aircraft. The Operations Supervisor went back to Operations to notify Maintenance. He returned about 15 minutes later to tell us that Maintenance would take no further action unless I refused the airplane.I called Dispatch and got Maintenance Control on the line and explained my concerns and told both that I would refuse the airplane if that's what it took to get something done. Before the Refusal process was complete; a new Maintenance Supervisor came on duty and listened patiently to the story and offered to open up the panel of our aircraft to verify it was normal. We found two female threaded nozzles spraying water onto the [air conditioning bay door] panels. One of us thought it might be a good idea to open up another B757 belly to compare and found a totally different configuration where the excess water was piped away into a larger duct that went aft; the pack area was dry.The Mechanics said they had to go and double check that our aircraft was indeed in a normal configuration. Mechanic later returned and told us it was a normal configuration. He also mentioned that in the future; any water leaking from the panels should be considered normal. I disagree with this because we might have had an aircraft in the other configuration that indeed had a broken or leaking drain line. Since then; we have flown another B757 which has also been dry in the pack area in similar hot and humid conditions.I am concerned that in addition to the mechanics disregard for my experienced First Officer's (and my) concerns regarding the aircraft that we were being pressured by Operations; Customer Service and Maintenance to take the aircraft without confirming that the situation was indeed 'normal' for that aircraft.I also take issue with the Mechanic telling us that any water seen leaking in that area should be considered normal when clearly it is not based on the aircraft configuration. Finally; I have two questions: 1) Why should my First Officer just conclude that water leaking from this area is normal when he personally has seen a broken drain line that had the same effect?2) How can one identify other aircraft that have this configuration?

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.