A be-1900 first officer reported doing several preflight walk-arounds; including looking in the engi...

Narrative:

I was the first officer for roundtrip flights. Prior to operating the roundtrip; I was the captain on the inbound flight that arrived 38 minutes prior to the departure of the roundtrip. As I got to the aircraft; the captain was already doing the preflight walk-around. We finished the rest of our preflight duties and departed on time. In the turn around station; I did the post-flight walk-around and found no discrepancies. Back in original airport; I once again did the walk-around in the late afternoon. Once again; I found no discrepancies. Sunset was approaching and light was waning; but not so much as to need a flashlight. I do distinctly remember looking in the engine inlets during both of the walk-arounds I performed. The next day I was notified of the inlet plugs that had been found in the engine that morning. I was not there in the morning to know what events lead up to the plugs being sucked into the engine. That would be the first place to try to find a cause and preventative recourse. I'm not sure if I didn't look close enough in the inlets; or if the plugs were not in sight. I do believe that if the plugs were brightly colored; they would have not been missed on at least 6 different walk-arounds by 4 different people.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A BE-1900 First Officer reported doing several preflight walk-arounds; including looking in the engine inlets; and not seeing inlet covers which had been ingested during that aircraft's first start at the originating station.

Narrative: I was the First Officer for roundtrip flights. Prior to operating the roundtrip; I was the Captain on the inbound flight that arrived 38 minutes prior to the departure of the roundtrip. As I got to the aircraft; the Captain was already doing the preflight walk-around. We finished the rest of our preflight duties and departed on time. In the turn around station; I did the post-flight walk-around and found no discrepancies. Back in original airport; I once again did the walk-around in the late afternoon. Once again; I found no discrepancies. Sunset was approaching and light was waning; but not so much as to need a flashlight. I do distinctly remember looking in the engine inlets during both of the walk-arounds I performed. The next day I was notified of the inlet plugs that had been found in the engine that morning. I was not there in the morning to know what events lead up to the plugs being sucked into the engine. That would be the first place to try to find a cause and preventative recourse. I'm not sure if I didn't look close enough in the inlets; or if the plugs were not in sight. I do believe that if the plugs were brightly colored; they would have not been missed on at least 6 different walk-arounds by 4 different people.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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	1150062
Time
Date	201402
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Beech 1900
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cowling
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A be-1900 first officer reported doing several preflight walk-arounds; including looking in the engine inlets; and not seeing inlet covers which had been ingested during that aircraft's first start at the originating station.