To quote the report:
The pins should have been removed then and placed on a special rack on the flightdeck.
On board during the pre-flight check there is another checklist, which he showed me which says 'landing gear safety pins - check'. The co-pilot calls this out to the captain who visually checks that all the safety pins are on the rack.
When the ground crew are still in radio contact with the pilots, a third check is done and they verbally verify to the flight deck that the plane is clear and ready for take-off," Van Zyl said.
He was shown the pins, which were 45cm by 12cm with a chain and red "flag" about 120cm long.
unquote
To my untrained eye and unco-ordinated brain how can you have pins stowed in the cabin but also have the ground crew show them to crew as well as part of the normal checks. Methinks reporter didnt check his scribble very well.
Mind you I have known a more expensive problem with undercart pins. When I worked for Transamerica we had a DC-8 at ANC which needed an INS change. The Gingerbeer sent to replace the unit pushed the undercarriage lever up to get access only to have said DC-8 settle neatly down at the nose. It dropped onto a vehicle and that caused all sorts of damage. The inbound crew forgot to put the pin in, the engineer forgot to check and as a result Murphy won the days main event Aircraft was u/s for quite a few weeks to replace a wiring loom damaged.
Ron