no, that's me.

is that a mirror, or are you and your Siamese twin joined at the tongue? joking.

#60 - that's probably true at the airport you work at, but how does that make it "a load of shit"? Not every airport operates the same way. For example, OP could have been flying a light plane on a dual pilot mail run out of some country airport - he didn't specify what sort of aircraft it was. Some airports I've been to almost shut down after hours, although you can still land at them, so there are no facilities open - this could have happened in the middle of the night. Also, I've worked at heavy maintenance and storage airports where aircraft up to 747 size are parked pretty much in the middle of nowhere on the field, and this scenario could easily happen. As a matter of fact, I've had to do it myself a couple of times, but at least I've had the courtesy to do it on the grass, out of sight of people.

Based on the context, specifically "early morning preflight check" I'm certain that none of your scenarios are possible, but then I'm certain this whole thing is a load of bull, anyway. Preflight checks are done when the plane is being serviced to fly out, not when it's sitting alone in a secluded or vacant area. Rampers are working on the plane, not to mention fueling is often being done at the time, should the plane need it. You can't get away with pissing in the vicinity of the plain at this point, plain and simple.

The story's real. Think "military flightline at 3 a.m.", not "international airport in broad daylight".

#73 - None of my scenarios are possible? Bullshit. The plane could have been something like a KingAir, refuelled the night before and being preflighted at 5AM. After all, he does specify 'early morning'. 90% of the preflights I've seen done have been done with no-one else anywhere near the plane, but these have been on aircraft smaller than RPT airliners. At the heavy end of the spectrum, late last year I was crew on an international ferry flight in an A320, where the total number of people involved was four. Most of the time we were left to our own devices, and got parked in the middle of nowhere. It was routine for there to be only one or two of us at the plane at any given time. Preflight inspection was done by one person, and we did internal battery starts and taxied directly from where we were parked. We refuelled the night before, and in the morning when it came time to go, the only ramp guy we needed was one to pull the stairs away. In your corner of aviation, working the way you do, at the airport you do, I'm sure this scenario would be almost impossible, but it annoys the crap out of me when people who saw a plane once assume that every aspect of the industry is exactly the same as what they are used to, and go off about how something is 'impossible' just because they never saw it before. As ShriekingMonkey said, try and visualise something different to your own environment.