Narrative:

Upon arriving at the airport I was not informed of any maintenance issues that were not part of the release. One write up from the inbound aircraft about a trim issue during flight. After retrieving a hard copy of the master flight plan I proceeded to the aircraft where I was met by a mechanic that said the trim issue was found to be within tolerances and made reference to possibly being pilot error. At this time the aircraft had not been on the ground for a very long time as deplaning had just ended and the cleaners were still on the aircraft. As I entered the aircraft the lead flight attendant proceeded to inform me of the issues the aircraft had departing ZZZ1 and enroute. She showed me pictures of the aircraft wing during flight with spoiler deflection. She also told me that the captain said he thought it would have to be fixed before we left ZZZ. I did the walk around and found no issues that were glaring to me. It had started to rain as I finished the walk around and wind gusts required that I put one hydraulic pump on. After more discussion with the lead flight attendant I began to have more concern for the situation and I decided to try to contact the inbound captain.I called scheduling and asked to be connected to the inbound captain's phone. This was not done properly as I was connected to a foreign national that had no idea who I was asking for. I decided to contact the duty manager for help with the communication as well as the issue of trim being extreme; as relayed by the flight attendant. With that discussion the duty manager was able to contact the inbound captain and get more information. After the duty manager retrieved more information we discussed and came up with a course of action to continue but also to discuss with maintenance control and get more information. As departure time came our plan was to believe the integrity of the release and depart. I called the duty manager back to tell them this and was told to 'stop' and that maintenance control was verifying the maintenance accuracy of their procedures. After we received this confirmation we closed the door and began the final checks. The duty manager called me and said 'stop' a second time and the reason was there had been something found to be out of place on our aircraft. I exited the plane and went to get a visual on the situation and found the right inboard flap to be extended with the flap handle in the up position. This was not like the position when I did the walk around initially. After a thorough inspection of the flap track pylon there was also a crack in the fiberglass and what appeared to be fluid dripping out. The only change in the flight controls was the hydraulic pump put in the on position for the wind gust. We decided the aircraft was grounded. I reported these findings to the duty manager and he relayed to maintenance control.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-900 Captain reported discovering the inboard flap was extended even though the flap handle was in the up position. The flight was cancelled.

Narrative: Upon arriving at the airport I was not informed of any maintenance issues that were not part of the release. One write up from the inbound aircraft about a trim issue during flight. After retrieving a hard copy of the master flight plan I proceeded to the aircraft where I was met by a mechanic that said the trim issue was found to be within tolerances and made reference to possibly being pilot error. At this time the aircraft had not been on the ground for a very long time as deplaning had just ended and the cleaners were still on the aircraft. As I entered the aircraft the lead flight attendant proceeded to inform me of the issues the aircraft had departing ZZZ1 and enroute. She showed me pictures of the aircraft wing during flight with spoiler deflection. She also told me that the captain said he thought it would have to be fixed before we left ZZZ. I did the walk around and found no issues that were glaring to me. It had started to rain as I finished the walk around and wind gusts required that I put one hydraulic pump on. After more discussion with the lead flight attendant I began to have more concern for the situation and I decided to try to contact the inbound captain.I called scheduling and asked to be connected to the inbound captain's phone. This was not done properly as I was connected to a foreign national that had no idea who I was asking for. I decided to contact the Duty Manager for help with the communication as well as the issue of trim being extreme; as relayed by the flight attendant. With that discussion the Duty Manager was able to contact the inbound captain and get more information. After the Duty Manager retrieved more information we discussed and came up with a course of action to continue but also to discuss with Maintenance Control and get more information. As departure time came our plan was to believe the integrity of the release and depart. I called the Duty Manager back to tell them this and was told to 'stop' and that Maintenance Control was verifying the maintenance accuracy of their procedures. After we received this confirmation we closed the door and began the final checks. The Duty Manager called me and said 'STOP' a second time and the reason was there had been something found to be out of place on our aircraft. I exited the plane and went to get a visual on the situation and found the right inboard flap to be extended with the flap handle in the up position. This was not like the position when I did the walk around initially. After a thorough inspection of the flap track pylon there was also a crack in the fiberglass and what appeared to be fluid dripping out. The only change in the flight controls was the hydraulic pump put in the on position for the wind gust. We decided the aircraft was grounded. I reported these findings to the Duty Manager and he relayed to Maintenance Control.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.