Error producing conditionsSnow on the wings
Light twin driver
Clearly you did the right thing at the time.
Was the snow dry or wet ?
Well Boston being by the sea it was probably damp and this is not good.
If the snow is dry and not sticky it will blow off on take off .
As an FO we took off with snow on the wing once.
I told the Captain I wanted to get all the dry snow off the wing prior to TO
and disagreed with him prior to. He overuled me, time pressure.
An experienced Captain in Canadian winter operations.
He said it will blow off and it did but...
As stated it is worse with frost or a layer that has stuck to the wing.
I am not condoning their ( possibly ) illegal actions but imagine what the NTSB
investigator would investigate.
Error producing conditions.
Say there was an accident on this day ?
Could you give us some more facts ?
The Errors are in the system.
If a pilot reports snow on another aircraft and expresses concern to ATC.
Perhaps there should be a regulation that the aircraft should be inspected.
When in doubt ?
Perhaps your answer " Yes, you do " in part motivated the Iberia to take off just to snub you as he may have found it patronizing.
If you had worded it differently that he perhaps would have had the ground de-icing crews perform an inspection. The Spanish are very proud.
Of course egos cannot get in the way of safety.
Iberia has been for sale for a while and there are organizational pressures.
Is it legal to take off with a contaminated wing, no.
How close were you to the aircraft ?