"Maintenance had been carried out on the aircraft overnight, to check the integrated drive generator oil levels, and this required the cowl doors to be opened. Photographs of the jet prior to pushback, says the AAIB, shows the doors were unlatched on both engines."
I cannot beleive that if a mechanic was pushing back that aircraft that they would not have noticed the cowls being unlatched. You can clearly see the cowl not being faired to the nose cowl and T/R when they are not latched.
Also, the pilot union has officially blamed the mechanics for the entire incident:
"David Reynolds, the head of safety at the British Airline Pilots Association said: “It is very unfortunate that the cowls were not locked. It is something the engineers to check.
“It is their job to make sure they are closed.
“A pilot’s role is to look out for anything obvious, but the only way in which they could have done this by lying on their back underneath the engines, which is not practical.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10092099/Engine-doors-on-stricken-BA-flight-left-open-official-report-finds.html
