Originally Posted by
Strasser
The plane came in the day prior in nasty icing and snow conditions and the return flight was canceled. They got deiced the following day when there was no precipitation and were advised by the deicing provider that the aircraft was clean. Our (F9) procedures require the crew to do an "exit row" contamination check if the HOT is exceeded or if operating in heavy snow. While neither of these conditions existed at the time, it seems something made them want to check (and what a good call to do so!).
They went back to the gate to deice again and were told by the vendor that fluid had run out (not sure if it was type I or IV). It's hard to say whether the fluid ran out immediately after they got deiced/anti-iced, or during.
Fantastic catch by everyone involved on the airplane.
From what I heard, they ran out of Type I and the de-icer just thought he could apply Type IV on top of the snow and call it clean.
I heard that once this was reported, the particular de-icer was immediately fired and the company's contract was terminated.