Originally Posted by Willie Everlearn
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.
First, as none of us was in the cockpit that day, we cannot possibly know what was or wasn't considered, so why speculate? Second, do you honestly believe that if a Captain makes a wrong call and gets away with it, it's therefore not a wrong call? By your way of logic, a guy who drives 40 kph over the speed limit every day and doesn't have an accident, doesn't deserve to get a ticket the next time the cops pull him over! There is only one acceptable standard, and that is to remove the contamination prior to flight, no matter how many times one has got away with it. Accidents like Dryden often happen because people are willing to drift away from the acceptable standard.
As for giving a comforting word, please give an example of an announcement I can make to my passengers to tell them I am about to violate the CARs, but "it's okay".
This thread and discussions like it, are precisely why I will not go flying with any amount of contamination on my wings. You just never know who is watching, and many of them carry cameras. I have received email messages with pictures of aircraft in flight with icy wings on more than one occasion. I do not want to have to answer to TC for my actions, no matter how much I feel I can get away with it.