B757-200 first officer reports difficulty taxiing to de-icing area with snow obscuring side windows....

Narrative:

The weather was northerly winds around 15 kts (I think) and snow. It was a wet snow. We left the flaps set at 20 degrees after landing as a precaution. We were parked at the gate. While we were getting ready; the deicing crew was deicing the underside of the aircraft; including the underside of the flaps; the engines and landing gear. The snow continued to fall while we were at the gate. The snow had accumulated on all the cockpit windows; however; the aft right window behind the first officer's right shoulder was only partially obscured. With the window heat and windshield wipers; we were able to clear the forward windshield; however; the other windows; other than the aft right window; were completely obscured with snow. During our pushback; I mentioned to the captain about the windows and asked if we were good to taxi. He asked the push crew over the flight interphone if there was a broom or something that could clean the snow off of the windows. The push crew didn't have anything to remove the snow. The captain and I felt that the partial opening on my aft window was good enough to clear the right side and taxi to the deice pad. It wasn't busy on the ramp at that time. The push crew verified that there wasn't any ground traffic around us and the ramp frequency had little; if any; communications. We did; however; have to have a deice crew marshal us into the proper position because we could not see when the captain's window was abeam the dash line in the deice pad. At that point; I knew one of 2 things should have occurred. Either all the windows should have been clear before we left the gate; or we should have had a tug pull us in to the deice pad. I know that this could not have been the first time that this situation occurred; however; I feel that we need a process in which the windows are cleared at the gate prior to pushback. Callback conversation with reporter revealed the following information: reporter advised that the city requires that complete deicing not be performed at the gate. However; limited scale deicing of landing gears and underwing/flap areas impacted by snow and ice upon the previous landing can be performed by ramp personnel while still at the gate. Deicing of cockpit windows is not part of the normal limited gate procedure.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757-200 First Officer reports difficulty taxiing to de-icing area with snow obscuring side windows. Feels windows should have been cleaned prior to taxi.

Narrative: The weather was northerly winds around 15 kts (I think) and snow. It was a wet snow. We left the flaps set at 20 degrees after landing as a precaution. We were parked at the gate. While we were getting ready; the deicing crew was deicing the underside of the aircraft; including the underside of the flaps; the engines and landing gear. The snow continued to fall while we were at the gate. The snow had accumulated on all the cockpit windows; however; the aft right window behind the First Officer's right shoulder was only partially obscured. With the window heat and windshield wipers; we were able to clear the forward windshield; however; the other windows; other than the aft right window; were completely obscured with snow. During our pushback; I mentioned to the Captain about the windows and asked if we were good to taxi. He asked the push crew over the flight interphone if there was a broom or something that could clean the snow off of the windows. The push crew didn't have anything to remove the snow. The Captain and I felt that the partial opening on my aft window was good enough to clear the right side and taxi to the deice pad. It wasn't busy on the ramp at that time. The push crew verified that there wasn't any ground traffic around us and the Ramp frequency had little; if any; communications. We did; however; have to have a deice crew marshal us into the proper position because we could not see when the Captain's window was abeam the dash line in the deice pad. At that point; I knew one of 2 things should have occurred. Either all the windows should have been clear before we left the gate; or we should have had a tug pull us in to the deice pad. I know that this could not have been the first time that this situation occurred; however; I feel that we need a process in which the windows are cleared at the gate prior to pushback. Callback conversation with reporter revealed the following information: Reporter advised that the city requires that complete deicing not be performed at the gate. However; limited scale deicing of landing gears and underwing/flap areas impacted by snow and ice upon the previous landing can be performed by ramp personnel while still at the gate. Deicing of cockpit windows is not part of the normal limited gate procedure.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	815353
Time
Date	200812
Local Time Of Day	1801 To 2400
Place
Locale Reference	airport : zzz.airport
State Reference	US
Altitude	agl single value : 0
Environment
Weather Elements	Rain
Aircraft 1
Controlling Facilities	tower : zzz.tower
Operator	common carrier : air carrier
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	ground : pushback
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Affiliation	company : air carrier
Function	flight crew : first officer
Experience	flight time last 90 days : 100 flight time total : 10500 flight time type : 2800
ASRS Report	815353
Events
Anomaly	non adherence : far other anomaly other
Independent Detector	other flight crewa
Resolutory Action	none taken : anomaly accepted
Supplementary
Problem Areas	Aircraft Airport FAA Flight Crew Human Performance
Primary Problem	Ambiguous

B757-200 first officer reports difficulty taxiing to de-icing area with snow obscuring side windows. Feels windows should have been cleaned prior to taxi.