Originally Posted by
Ignition Override
What would your airline do?
As this would have directly affected the safety of the aircraft; carry out a full investigation in order to identify the cause of the occurrence and take appropriate action to prevent/reduce the likelihood of a similar incident occurring in the future.
Following a number of high profile aircraft ground icing related accidents in North America the 1980’s/early 90’s, a programme was introduced within the industry to define the basic de-icing/anti-icing requirements and to standardise such procedures on a global basis. This work has continued and today airworthiness authorities, such as EASA, the FAA and TC, currently require that Operators establish procedures to ensure that appropriate aircraft surfaces are free of frost, ice, slush and snow at take-off. Organisations such as the AEA in Europe and SAE in North America publish up to date information to assist Operators in compiling their cold weather procedures and this includes subjects such as responsibilities, checks and training.
However, for this system to be fully effective the industry is reliant on the Operator raising, maintaining and complying with the required procedures and the airworthiness authorities subsequently auditing to ensuring compliance.
Looking at the case in question, the Operator’s procedures will (should) define the responsibilities of the de-icing operative. For example, de-/anti-ice the aircraft surfaces specified by the Operator I.A.W. either the Operator’s or Handling Agent’s procedures (as previously agreed) and on completion ensure that these surfaces are free of contamination. Pass the appropriate information to the person responsible for the ‘Post De-icing Check’. It would appear that on this occasion the de-icing operative may have failed to treat the aircraft I.A.W. the agreed procedures. Additional training may therefore be appropriate in order to ensure he/she is fully aware of both the implications of inadequate de-/anti-icing and the requirement for symmetrical de-/anti-icing.
Following each de-icing operation there is a mandatory requirement for a ‘Post De-icing Check’ to be carried out by a trained/qualified person, nominated by the Operator. To quote from the AEA De-icing Recommendations, “…This check………….shall visually cover all critical parts of the aircraft and be performed from points offering sufficient visibility of these parts (e.g. from the de-icer itself or another elevated piece of equipment).” It’s important that the Operator clearly defines in his procedures who is responsible for carrying out this check and establishes that the nominated official is aware of his/her responsibilities. In the context of this incident it appears that either a second failure occurred, in that the ‘nominated official’ did not adequately check the appropriate surfaces, or that the Operator had not adequately define the check and/or who was responsible for performing it. Appropriate action would be required to rectify this situation.
It should be noted that the ‘Post De-icing Check’ covers all critical parts of the aircraft and cannot therefore be carried out from inside either the flight deck or cabin as suggested in some of the responses. Those Operators who delegate this responsibility to their flight crew should be made aware of this requirement as during active precipitation, e.g. snow, freezing drizzle, light freezing rain, it’s unlikely that sufficient holdover time will be available to allow a flight crew member to perform this check from outside the aircraft.
On completion of the ‘Post De-icing Check’ the nominated official is required to pass details of the ‘Anti-icing Code’ to the aircraft commander. This provides the commander with the information needed to determine the likely holdover time from the published tables and acts as his/her confirmation that appropriate surfaces are free of frost, ice, slush and snow at that time.
No information is provided on the conditions experienced at the time of this incident, however, under certain conditions the flight crew would be required to perform a ‘Pre-takeoff Check’ (this may be carried out from inside the aircraft) or even a ‘Pre-takeoff Contamination Check’ (this is normally performed from outside the aircraft). Provided the basic rules and requirements are followed the chances of this type of incident occurring are small, I would be interested to hear the outcome of the inquiry into this incident…….