Years ago I was flying Trislanders. Because a failure of the centre engine wasn't that obvious, there was a light on the panel marked "No. 2 Engine Fail". The system was switched on before takeoff, and subsequently the light began to flash. Bearing in mind that the first pax row is directly behind the pilot, and we frequently had a passenger in the RHS, it was common to get the dig in the back of the neck and.."Ere, pilot".

Yes, the Spanair MD-82 at MAD would be more apt parallel.

You never know
 

A long long time ago, when I was about 15yrs old, took a flight (without parents) from LHR to Jersey, in a viscount. In the cruise I noticed a crack across the top of the LHS inside engine mount, slowly getting longer. I ask the CC if it was normal - they didn't know, but told the flight deck. Man with stripes arrived, looked at it and with horror in his eyes said "that's normal young man, but we will stop the engine to be on the safe side". Safe 3 engine landing was the result.

Slats
 

#19. trident - slats???:{
Prober

Most Tridents had slats, though presumably the OP is referring to Papa India which, being a 1C, had droops instead.

Either way, PI certainly didn't take off with the crew having forgotten to deploy them.

Yes North African..it was actually Air Algerie who had taken eco tankage into GVA and onto ZRH. Our ground crew had checked but not checked and there was a layer of clear ice on the wings which my skipper spotted. Ex Luftwaffe strarfighter...incredibly talented the whole bunch.
The crew went all the way to the threshold of 23, lined up and put on loads of power which saw my skipper go white but they were just speeding up the process of getting back to the ramp. It took two full goes to clear the ice.
Our DC9s had tell tales added to aid clear ice detection as it is extremely difficult to see.
The ANC case was also ex Luftwaffe...but everyone could see an inch or so of dry snow on the wing...quite sure that the local FAA tolerated the practice.
WRT to dents..her indoors had five hours getting drunk in Nimes after a frog loader drove into FR cargo hold frame...engineer decided that he couldn't inspect the internals so they flew down another 737.
And we had a big airways "senior first officer" tell us all how he was a clever boy and had discovered a dent at LHR on a 74 with the paint peeling off...the insides weren't much better with threadbare carpets and the entertainment system not working...haven't been back since.

Over the years I have had many passengers tell me about things they find strange. The first thing I do is thank them for their comment. Then I have a look and then explain what I have found. If I can't see what they told me about, I get them outside to show me. To date, nobody has found anything we didnt know about beforehand but plenty of items on the MEL have been spotted by eagle eyed pax. I hope they never stop looking.

I'd like to think that I and my colleagues would have said something.

As an FO, I DID point out that we were high and fast on a short wet runway. (Used all of those terms)
Ol' skip carried on and landed anyway, bursting all the maingear tyres. Fortunately we didn't go off the end.

I was six years old on my first flight heading to visit the grandparents sitting window over port wing of a DC-6. Only thing kids could do then is look out the window and marvel at the ability to fly. Noticed oil streaming back out of the cowling of the port inner back over the wing during cruise. Tugged on mum's shirt, she flagged down the stew who took a quick look and then went forward. One of the front office came back, leaned over took a look and said in what was classic pilot vernacular 'that's normal for these old buckets but thank you and keep watching it for me' after which I received my first set of wings. I knew what I wanted to do for a living and my doodling in school was airliners from then on - no more trains.

Hear, hear! Once insisted on steps being brought so that I could climb up and check. Ground handling said 'All OK, captain.' I didn't trust them and insisted.
Another time we had been de-iced, noticed residual ice and had the job done again after photographing the evidence.
On yet another occasion, guy threw a bucket of hot water over a cold-soaked wing. Needless to say, it froze on contact. :*

Similar thing happened on a BA 707 out of Montreal once. One of the rear doors was very obviously not shut properly after galley loading. Cabin crew sat next to it and just let it all happen. Of course once airborne the screaming airflow noise finally prompted the clowns to tell someone on the flightdeck. After levelling off at 10000 the flight engineer (remember them?) actually opened the door against the airflow and shut it properly. No turnback required.

Piltdown Man has it right:
We now know FOR SURE, that a picture of the hole/defect/speedtape will be on social media before the chocs are pulled. CEOs should be making it very clear that, whilst it may be irritating to get five people pointing out the speedtape - it's cheaper than the social media meltdown afterwards, over something that was not an issue.

If the hole is in a pressurised area I'm wondering how speed tape would stay on

October 1999 flying Manchester to Gatwick (thence Phoenix, Oakland to join a ship in Oakland) noticed that most of the fasteners, Dzus(?) that secured a wing panel over the right hand engine of the BA737 were missing. When we landed I checked the left hand side and 100% present. Tried asking the cabin crew to pass on to the fight deck, but not interested.


Admittedly nothing was flapping or fell off during the 30 odd minutes MAN to LGW, but I'm sure the fasteners should have been there...

Multiple layers of speed tape from the inside with a good overlap from the hole, put some heavy bags on top of it and probably good 'til the next D Check. ;)

In this case, it clearly wasn't.

In the late 1980s I was positioning JER-GCI on a clockwork Tristar with another member of crew,we had the last row just below the engine on the fin.The pilot taxied to the hold on two engines,we naturally expected the third engine to start before TO but no we lined up and powered up and started to roll,we both shouted STOP!! The pilot vacated the runway taxied back to the hold and started the third engine and took off.

Vivabeaver. Probably meant to stop that light flashing, as in my post 22, but then forgot about the engine.

Forgive my skepticism, but that doesn't seem likely. Where was she when she noticed the crack?

Not likely, but a passenger did observe a crack while boarding. See second paragraph on page 11 :

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/...ts/AAR8903.pdf