Originally Posted by
Uplinker
By saying 'wow that could have happened to me', you are effectively saying you think it is conceivable that no pilots visually checked and confirmed that all the pitot probe covers had been removed and the probes were clear before their flight.
That comment somewhat misses the point. The problem here is that 'keyhole' wasps build nests VERY quickly. There was an incident where an aircraft suffered an airspeed discrepancy due to a wasp nest after being on the ground for less than an hour. Consequently, it had become routine practice for the pitot covers to be left on as long as possible and removed by the engineers shortly before departure, well AFTER the pilot’s walk-around had been completed. It essentially comes down to a non-standard procedure that was not properly communicated between all the relevant parties, along with the failure of some of those concerned to follow up and ensure the necessary checks were completed before departure.