Short Bus,

I don't really understand your post. Just a bunch of miscellaneous quotes. If you are quetioning the value of a visual inspection for ice pellets then please reread my previous post that you quoted. This is not a visual inspection, it is a tactile (physical) inspection with a qualified inspection physically touching the outboard wing of the most adversely affected side of the aircraft.

We don't do these at all the outstations, if-fact, I believe it is only performed at the EWR and CLE. We have a lot of metal to move out of both and while a sincere hassle, I imagine that it is well worth the money and time to get the planes off the ground. I've never actually seen it performed, but I suspect that's how planes were getting airborne that day in EWR.