What sort of inspection do planes get between flights?
 

If an airline is on a quick turnaround schedule, what sort of inspection does a plane require after landing? For example, with Ryanair or Southwest, what does the pilot or the ground crew have to do after landing the plane to ensure it is safe to take off again?

at wn the starting fo inspects the plane on the orig. but after a crew change the plane is inspected again, and us ramp guys look around on occation to make sure the enngines are still there.

The one thing to keep in mind with a modern airplane is how much information is available in the cockpit. If you leave the gas cap off on your car the only way you'll likely find out is if the 'check engine' light comes on twenty miles later. Tire pressure's likely unavailable and your oil pressure's probably just indicated with an 'idiot light.' Contrast this with a plane where data on almost everything is available in the cockpit. So the 'walkaround' is just to make sure the engines haven't fallen off, there aren't any obvious problems etc.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

They check for dents, too. I sat for 45 minutes one evening waiting for a mechanic to measure a dent on the fuselage to determine whether the aircraft was deemed airworthy.

What, there's no "Engine Fell Off" monitor in the cockpit?

Err perhaps you need to buy a new BMW :)

Gas cap off/loose and tyre pressure low are both indicated by the dash computer.

mike

The reason I asked the question is because someone reported on another forum that he/she watched a Ryanair plane come in, the passengers disembark, and the plane get reloaded and take off, without any check of the plane in between. I doubted this was plausible, but who knows.

I would think that the cockpit gauges cannot be absolutely determinative of problems - after all, these are subject to possible error also.

That's probably about right. They are on a 25 minute turn around so they don't have time to walk around and kick the tyres.