Was CA on a PDT Dash flight from CLT to HHH. Everything was completely normal.
Board up the pax in HHH for the return flight. Before closing the cockpit door, the FA says that there is a lady sitting in row 4 (window emergency exit row) that is concerned about a hole in the side of the airplane. I ask the FA what she would like me to do about the passenger's concerns. Since we were plenty early, I went back to chat with this lady.
There is black rubber weatherstripping around the edges of the interior cabin panel on this window exit plug door. The rubber serves no purpose other than to "fill the gap" between the interior cabin panels that surround the window exit. On this particular aircraft, the weatherstripping was a bit wavy and did not fill the gap very well.
The lady was looking through one of these gaps in the weatherstripping on the forward edge of the interior panel at row 4. Based on her line of sight, she was also looking through the exterior window pane that is secured to the aircraft fuselage skin ahead at row 3. This made her feel that she had an unobstructed view of the outside world, simply by looking through this gap in the weatherstripping.
I tried to explain to this lady what she was seeing. I tried to explain how the particular piece of rubber was not there to seal the window exit. I tried to explain how there are two panes to the windows, and even though she could see the outside, she was only able to do so because of the outer pane at row 3 was actually still there. I tried to explain how obvious it would be to me as a pilot if there was actually that large of a hole on this airplane during the inbound flight.
I asked if there was anything else I could do to reassure her. She was still uneasy, but unfortunately about the only other thing I could have done was to take her outside the plane to see from the exterior that there was not a hole in the side. I also didn't offer her the opportunity to take a later flight, because I knew that it would just be another Dash 8, which just might have the same wavy weatherstripping.
So off we went, into the wild blue yonder. Just for fun, I ran the pressurization at max differential for that leg. If the ol' Dash was gonna spring an air leak, this would be the time. But as usual the workhorse got the job done. Once safely at the gate in CLT, I even stood at the door to say goodbye to the folks and joke with the concerned lady that everything turned out ok, just as I said it would.