Quote:
Everyone, please remember the most important part. We are talking about a highly experience crew who earns a very nice salary. I don’t question for one minute their decision to depart.
Wasn´t the Dryden Captain the most experienced guy in his airline? And the KLM/Teneriffe Captain THE most experienced 747 driver of KLM?
If I look at the dumb things I do after nearly 20 years of flying I doubt the value of a statement like the one above.
Many years ago, I took off in a KingAir 200 with loose snow on the stabilizer. I cleared off all the snow from the wings and empennage and it was all just loose stuff. Nether the less, some snow melted and refroose and bridged in front of the elevators. To cut a long story short, this was the first,only and last time I ever took off in a contiminated airplane. Thats what I learned from that takeoff, that would have see me crash if any additional problem would had developed.
If the A340 was covered in snow, they were just lucky to get away with it. The conditons were just so that they did. (always presuming that this story is true). Not beeing an Airbus nor a heavy aircraft pilot I just wonder how much you can really see and judge from the flightdeck. I´d think that they have ground crew to assist in this decision. But after the hoarfrost T/O accident of SAS and the Dryden accident I think it is clear that any amount of wing cont should raise concern.