30+ planes on the tarmac waiting deice because of unexpected snow (I’m on COA1659 as we speak at #8 in line at 9:15pm Central on what was supposed to be a 5:20pm departure). If you were planning to catch a flight out of KIAH tonight, you might want to reconsider.
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd208/robbreid/CanadaMoose-1.gif Sounds horrible!!!
As a follow up, My 520pm departure finally took off close to midnight on Weds. I spent a total of 7 hours (including the flight itself) on a 733 for a flight which normally takes 45 minutes. Talk about some pissed off people when we finally landed.
In a situation like the one described, who would be at fault? Does the airport itself control the deicing or does the airline have their own crews?
The Pilot in Command of each aircraft, it is his sole discretion as to ‘de-icing’ of his/her aircraft. As for who does it, every airport is different.
Either the airlines has its own crews, or it is sub-contracted to ‘whomever’ is available or has contracts/partnerships with.
The Ground Stop that night was annotated as being for Continental aircraft only. It could have been that COA was just not prepared to deal with ice at all.
Wonder how many qualified de-icing personal were on duty that day? One must be checked out before he or she squirts and aircraft.
I worked for an FBO at YYZ, and de-iced many aircraft. I had a fellow ramp worker show me in two minutes how to fill the de-icer, what temperature to set it for, how to turn on the nozzle, how it moves - that was it.
Not one word on what to spray, what to look for etc., I would ask the pilots exactly what they wanted, and would have them stay with me while I sprayed - because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing!!!
I work the ramp in YYJ. The past two days it has been snowing and very cold (for Victoria!). I work for a contract company and we handle WestJet and Horizon Air. Last night, we had to de-ice several WestJet flights and two Horizon flights. For WestJet, they have their own truck, specifically for de-icing (heated, VHF radios, all sorts of fancy stuff). For Horizon, we have to use a “Kangaroo” which is basically a cherry picker towed around by a tug. It is very interesting to watch aircraft being de-iced. Here in YYJ, like IAH, we hardly ever get snow, so our de-icing takes forever! If you want to know a little more, shoot me a PM.