Now this thread took quite a quick turn; from 747's to hurricanes and Spit's.
There are a couple planes at Orient Thai with ex-united paint jobs on them still.
S*#t happens!
On one of our old Tri-stars, a rather large section of skin peeled off the top of our left horizontal stabilizer, and went undetected(you can't see it on a walk around)untill one of our 747's taxi'd by and said " oh looky, check that out." We never felt a thing on the tristar and was mighty glad it was daylight when the 747 taxi'd by!