Narrative:

It was raining quite heavily. When I was doing my preflight walkaround; I found a pair of ramper's knee pads; half way back; and sitting inside the #2 engine. Obviously; one of the rampers had set them there to prevent them from getting wet while unloading/loading the aircraft. I removed the knee pads and handed them to the first ramper I came across. There was great potential for engine damage or even worse if the chain of events had been different; i.e.; ramper puts knee pads in engine after I did my walkaround and then forgets about them; we start engines.... Tell rampers to not put anything inside the engine. But I'm pretty sure their procedures already tell them this. It is a common sense item.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 First Officer discovers kneepads in engine inlet during heavy rain; apparently placed there by Ramper hoping to keep them dry. Pads are removed.

Narrative: It was raining quite heavily. When I was doing my preflight walkaround; I found a pair of Ramper's knee pads; half way back; and sitting inside the #2 engine. Obviously; one of the Rampers had set them there to prevent them from getting wet while unloading/loading the aircraft. I removed the knee pads and handed them to the first Ramper I came across. There was great potential for engine damage or even worse if the chain of events had been different; i.e.; Ramper puts knee pads in engine after I did my walkaround and then forgets about them; we start engines.... Tell Rampers to not put anything inside the engine. But I'm pretty sure their procedures already tell them this. It is a common sense item.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.