Hi all,
listen Meatbomber,
I do not, and never have accepted these stories about the lateness of the hour and the bad weather, and the multiple late shifts involved.
We (I), also have to do a 100% job, during decent and approach after a 12hour flight, at 3am, in bad weather, and I expect EVERYBODY to do that - no excuses, no mistakes, we can't afford them!
When the Flight Engineer does his walkaround, prior to the second leg of a late-night, bad weather flight, I expect the aircraft external to be thoughly inspected, and if anything warrants closer inspection, I expect the FE to talk to the right people to get that done, to his satisfaction, or the Captain gets to hear about it, so he can make a decision - all this has to happen every time, regardless!
There is to much at stake here, half truths and half done jobs are not welcome, and not acceptable!
Cheers.
(This subject really gets me going!)