They did a thorough check of an aeroplane I was due to air test one day and found:
1. The stall protetion isolation system had never been connected.
2. The lift rate modifier had never been connected - the input cables from the flap and slat position sensors were found to have been just tucked behind the black box without being connected to anything, so alpha modification for configuration had never been applied to the stall protection system.
3. A BOAC silver first-class teaspoon was found lodged in the structure below the flight deck.
But this was in 1998 - the aircraft had been sold by BOAC to Gulf Air years earlier, had then been bought back by the RAF after Gulf had finished with it and had then been rebuilt by BWoS at Filton. Yet none of these faults had been detected in over 30 years of service...........