A crj-900 captain reported that two upper wing service panels were missing; one off each wing; after...

Narrative:

After shutting aircraft down; first officer performed post flight walk around. He came in and told me he thought we had lost 2 inspection panels (one on each wing) and asked me to look. I looked from the top of the jetway and couldn't see anything; so I went down and looked from the back of wing; still couldn't see anything. The first officer said take a few steps back and stand on your toes; sure enough I could just barely see a hole at the very top of the left wing. Same on the right wing. I tried looking from the cabin and could just barely see them when I put my face against the window. I'm 6ft tall and I could barely see them when I knew to be looking for them. My first officer said that he just happened to step a few steps back from his normal preflight route and noticed something looked different. I went back to the aircraft made a wright up and called maintenance control. I was told that the aircraft had over nighted and had those panels off to service gear pivot points. The black markings for the escape path go through these panels making them harder to see. Due to the location and height of the wing; short of having stands or ladders to climb on during pre and post flights; I don't think there's much that could help crew members to see these panels.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-900 Captain reported that two upper wing service panels were missing; one off each wing; after an overnight landing gear pivot point service. The aircraft had previously flown several flights that day.

Narrative: After shutting aircraft down; First Officer performed post flight walk around. He came in and told me he thought we had lost 2 inspection panels (one on each wing) and asked me to look. I looked from the top of the Jetway and couldn't see anything; so I went down and looked from the back of wing; still couldn't see anything. The First Officer said take a few steps back and stand on your toes; sure enough I could just barely see a hole at the very top of the left wing. Same on the right wing. I tried looking from the cabin and could just barely see them when I put my face against the window. I'm 6ft tall and I could barely see them when I knew to be looking for them. My First Officer said that he just happened to step a few steps back from his normal preflight route and noticed something looked different. I went back to the aircraft made a wright up and called Maintenance Control. I was told that the aircraft had over nighted and had those panels off to service gear pivot points. The black markings for the escape path go through these panels making them harder to see. Due to the location and height of the wing; short of having stands or ladders to climb on during pre and post flights; I don't think there's much that could help crew members to see these panels.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1073279
Time
Date	201301
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Wing Access Panel
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A crj-900 captain reported that two upper wing service panels were missing; one off each wing; after an overnight landing gear pivot point service. The aircraft had previously flown several flights that day.