static ports covered
Howdy Steve!
Look, you found an oops. A very serious, potentially deadly oops, but you found it. I'll quote you here:
"Over 18 months ago, when I was still a lowly ramp lead agent, during a walkround inspection, I found both alternate static ports on a 737 covered with speed tape. The aircraft had night stopped. I called the line maintenance engineer back, in case he'd dropped a bk and forgotten to take it off."
I would imagine that the Engineer at that point removed the tape. Guess what?
You're done!
As a ramp agent, I have no idea why you are doing walkarounds, but whatever, you discovered something wrong and that's a good thing. You have no need to beat yourself up, nobody died and you did the right thing notifying the appropriate person who is supposed to be doing walkarounds of the defect you found. Did the Engineer raise an issue regarding the defect? Not your problem. Will it happen again? Well, that's what you are worried about, isn't it?
Unfortunately, the way things are going in the industry today, there are people out there who don't think there is anything wrong with covering static ports with speed tape. As has been mentioned previously, silver tape on a silver area of the fuselage is rather hard to spot. That's why you are not supposed to do that, nevermind the sticky stuff left behind that picks up all manner of stuff, making the static ports not so static.
So, if you really believe there is an issue, drop a dime anonymously and let the local yokels know that there may be a serious problem with the organization in question. You will be "anonymous", but they are going to want to know your background, so if you are not a Certifying Engineer or Pilot, you better have your ducks in a row or they will not take you very seriously.
A note to those that leave the ground for a living: the airplane allegedly flew for two days in this condition. How many of you out there really REALLY pay attention to your standby instruments?
Keep the Faith!
PB