I believe Boeing, and many other aircraft manufacturers define their requirement for deicing as "OAT less than 10 degrees Celcius and visible moisture" with "no ice or snow adhering to the wing surface."
Short of the tactile scrathing with the fingernails of your hand, how does this crew (or any other crew at this airline or any other airline) determine or eliminate the adhering part?
Besides, if the reported weather at the arrival and departure times is accurate for the case in point, light snow IS "visible moisture" and the OAT was reported as less than 10 degrees. That leaves visibility less than a mile, which is wasn't.
Why wasn't the aircraft sprayed/deiced? Captain's responsibility. Captain's call.
To attack the crew in this instance for NOT deicing is folly. I'm sure the Captain considered the "usual" pre-departure stuff and decided not to deice. That's the end of it. Discussion over.
Why should he have to defend that decision. Obviously it was the right one because the flight not only operated safely from A to B but is history.
The interesting part of this (for me at least) is the lack of concern pilots can have when operating in these conditions. We sometimes forget that we have people in the back who are scared sh**less. For some, it can be traumatic. A comforting word might have been prudent and if the author in question was still aprehensive then he would have had the opportunity to say something.
Doesn't sound like that's the way it went down.
Discussion is good. Debate even better.
