Judging by the photos that I have seen, cracks might well be visible to both the Engineer on a pre-flight or turn around, as well as the Pilot on his walk around.
And as far as the spin from both sides go, the truth seems to be somewhere in the middle. Seems to me that this was a great
PR opportunity for QF that was completely bungled. If QF management think that they are all innocent and not responsible for this fiasco, they need to remember that being at war with one of their unions is a very bad look. A lesson they clearly missed in 2011.
And for those with personal attacks on Steve Purvinas, I would suggest you either grow a set of balls and use your real name on this forum, or keep your vile, gutless comments to yourself. Steve is using his real name, how about you do the same?