For airlines, maintenance personnel are required to perform a complete
inspection of the aircraft before it is released for flight.

A thorough external "walkaround" inspection by the flight crew is also
required on the first flight of the day or after external maintenance. On
subsequent flights it is not required if the crew/aircraft remains the same
unless maintenance is performed. If the crew changes, the new pilot crew
must do an abbreviated external inspection.

--

Darrell R. Schmidt
B-58 Hustler History: http://members.cox.net/dschmidt1/
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"Ramapriya" wrote in message
om...
I've done a fair bit of international commuting and have always
noticed the pilots getting dropped close to the airport approximately
45 min or 1 hour prior to takeoff, whereon they simply embark the
plane and get down to business in the cockpit. I've not till date seen
even one pilot actually do a walkaround!

Do commercial passenger airlines have someone other than the pilot
perform the walkaround of the aircraft, if at all? And how important
is the walkaround in commercial jets? I remember reading the accident
investigation report of an Aeroperu 737 crash where it was suggested
that a walkaround may have helped detect the piece of duct tape that
was plastered in the wrong place, blocking the static port...

Ramapriya