It's a long time since I was on a long lead and headset seeing an aircraft off, I guess that this job has been downgraded to a member of the tug team, not an engineer. The intention of the engineer on the lead was to ensure that the aircraft was serviceable when it left the ramp and in so doing checking the safe removal of the service vehicles from the aircraft without damaging the structure. The aircrew have to do their checks on accepting the aircraft well before the service vehicles are disconnected.