The procedure at Delta has the rampers focus mainly around the service doors and cargo bins looking for any damage that might have been caused by ground equipment. Once on taxi in, to make sure there is none present, and once before pushing, to make sure they didn't cause any damage. Since there is usually GSE around the doors when a pilot does his walkaround, he may not see any damage.

The ALA is also supposed to give the plane an overall look, and bring anything that doesn't seem right to MX's attention. That way, if something needs to be fixed, MX may already be working on it before the pilots get to the plane, thus reducing delays caused by damage.

I found all this out one day by finding some FOD damage to the underside leading edge by the wing root. Seems something was kicked up and struck the plane below the 2L door, then traveled back and hit the wing fillet area, leaving a groove in the fiberglass and knocking paint off. Went unnoticed for close to two hours as the plane was unloaded and then prepped for a crossing. MX even missed it on the ETOPS check. We ended up taking a two hour delay waiting on the engineering repair order from Boeing. The AMTs were joking that that ramp supervisor was going to be ****ed because his department was gonna get the delay charged to them.