Narrative:

As we prepared for departure; the first officer informed me water was leaking from just above his side window. I looked at it and saw water dripping all over electrical terminal block on the right side window. It had been raining since before the airplane arrived at the gate. I called line maintenance and a mechanic promptly arrived at the airplane and we stopped the boarding process. The mechanic checked the escape hatch and the ceiling paneling and concluded water must have been leaking through the window seal. He did not really know how to handle that; so he went to talk to his supervisor. As he was leaving it stopped raining.about ten minutes later he came back with another mechanic. This second mechanic; as he was coming on board; in front of the passengers yelled out: 'all airplanes leak; guys!!' I told him that was not something our passengers wanted to hear. I also asked him if the airplane was certified to allow a certain amount of water into the cockpit; to which he replied: 'absolutely'. It had not rained for fifteen minutes now. The second mechanic dried the water with a rag. He saw no more water leaking and said: 'ok; I don't see a leak; it's good to go'. I was shocked. I told him there was no leak because it had not rained for a while; but he had seen the water; and he had dried it up. I also voiced my concern about the size of the leak (it was dripping profusely) and about the fact that the terminal block was getting all wet. He said there was no leak and that he was signing it off; which he did. I called my dispatcher; explained the situation and told her I did not feel comfortable taking the airplane. She and the sector manager agreed and gave us another airplane that was next door to us. I told the passengers we were getting another airplane and we deplaned. Finally; I phoned maintenance control and told them the aircraft had been signed off; but as I viewed it; the airplane was not fixed. It was not leaking because it was not raining at the moment; but it was supposed to rain all day. To me this was like having a fuel leak out of a fuel tank. A mechanic shows up and says: let's empty the fuel tank and dry out the fuel residue. All right!! I don't see a fuel leak anymore; I am signing it off!! Just because there are not symptoms at the moment; it does not mean the problem is no longer there. When you know something is broken; fix it or defer it if there is MEL relief.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-200 Captain refused an aircraft which had significant water leakage into the cockpit and onto electrical equipment.

Narrative: As we prepared for departure; the First Officer informed me water was leaking from just above his side window. I looked at it and saw water dripping all over electrical terminal block on the right side window. It had been raining since before the airplane arrived at the gate. I called line maintenance and a mechanic promptly arrived at the airplane and we stopped the boarding process. The mechanic checked the escape hatch and the ceiling paneling and concluded water must have been leaking through the window seal. He did not really know how to handle that; so he went to talk to his Supervisor. As he was leaving it stopped raining.About ten minutes later he came back with another mechanic. This second mechanic; as he was coming on board; in front of the passengers yelled out: 'All airplanes leak; guys!!' I told him that was not something our passengers wanted to hear. I also asked him if the airplane was certified to allow a certain amount of water into the cockpit; to which he replied: 'absolutely'. It had not rained for fifteen minutes now. The second mechanic dried the water with a rag. He saw no more water leaking and said: 'OK; I don't see a leak; it's good to go'. I was shocked. I told him there was no leak because it had not rained for a while; but he had seen the water; and he had dried it up. I also voiced my concern about the size of the leak (it was dripping profusely) and about the fact that the terminal block was getting all wet. He said there was no leak and that he was signing it off; which he did. I called my Dispatcher; explained the situation and told her I did not feel comfortable taking the airplane. She and the Sector Manager agreed and gave us another airplane that was next door to us. I told the passengers we were getting another airplane and we deplaned. Finally; I phoned Maintenance Control and told them the aircraft had been signed off; but as I viewed it; the airplane was not fixed. It was not leaking because it was not raining at the moment; but it was supposed to rain all day. To me this was like having a fuel leak out of a fuel tank. A mechanic shows up and says: let's empty the fuel tank and dry out the fuel residue. All right!! I don't see a fuel leak anymore; I am signing it off!! Just because there are not symptoms at the moment; it does not mean the problem is no longer there. When you know something is broken; fix it or defer it if there is MEL relief.

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.