Narrative:

On the day of our departure the airport experienced moderate snow throughout the day. Visibility fluctuated between 700 and 1400 meters. After arriving at the airport from the hotel; we were greeted at the gate by customer service. The agent asked me if we will be able to go without deicing; since the airplane just came in. I looked at the airplane parked at the gate. It was covered with about a half inch of snow. I told her the aircraft would absolutely have to be deiced. Another agent told me another flight had been waiting 3 hours and was still not deiced. When I got to operations I was told that we could get deiced as soon as we boarded and pulled the jetway. Not likely; I explained in view of the ZZZ delay. We did in fact wait at the gate for over 3 hours for the deice crews to arrive. During this delay the airport received moderate snow. I opened the cockpit window and swiped the snow from the side of the fuselage. Under the snow was about (?) inch of ice. About 20 minutes after deicing had begun; a mechanic came on the headset and stated 'deicing complete.' he gave the start and stop times and the fluid type. I proceeded to the cabin and examined the wings. I was shocked to see that the wing had large patches of ice from the wing root outboard to the wingtip. The nacelles were also caked with snow. I got on the headset and informed maintenance that the deicing was not acceptable and that the crews must return. After another 20 minutes I was again told 'deicing complete' by the company mechanic. The inspection from the cabin again revealed deficiencies. This time icicles were hanging from the leading edge of the wing and the engine nacelles were still caked with snow. I again told the mechanic that deicing was unacceptable and that the crews must remove all ice and snow. We departed after the third deice application. By this time it had stopped snowing. This was fortunate because it appeared there was no type 2 fluid applied after the type 1 application was completed; even though the deice data supplied to the cockpit indicated type 2 was applied. This is the worst deicing process I have ever witnessed. It is quite clear to me that this station is completely incapable of following approved company deicing procedures. It is extremely disheartening to be told that deicing is complete by a company mechanic when it is abundantly clear that it is not. The 'clean airplane concept' is not understood by this station. This situation requires immediate attention.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B777-200 Captain required three separate deicing procedures before the aircraft was deemed acceptable for flight.

Narrative: On the day of our departure the airport experienced moderate snow throughout the day. Visibility fluctuated between 700 and 1400 meters. After arriving at the airport from the hotel; we were greeted at the gate by customer service. The agent asked me if we will be able to go without deicing; since the airplane just came in. I looked at the airplane parked at the gate. It was covered with about a half inch of snow. I told her the aircraft would absolutely have to be deiced. Another agent told me another flight had been waiting 3 hours and was still not deiced. When I got to operations I was told that we could get deiced as soon as we boarded and pulled the jetway. Not likely; I explained in view of the ZZZ delay. We did in fact wait at the gate for over 3 hours for the deice crews to arrive. During this delay the airport received moderate snow. I opened the cockpit window and swiped the snow from the side of the fuselage. Under the snow was about (?) inch of ice. About 20 minutes after deicing had begun; a mechanic came on the headset and stated 'deicing complete.' He gave the start and stop times and the fluid type. I proceeded to the cabin and examined the wings. I was shocked to see that the wing had large patches of ice from the wing root outboard to the wingtip. The nacelles were also caked with snow. I got on the headset and informed Maintenance that the deicing was not acceptable and that the crews must return. After another 20 minutes I was again told 'deicing complete' by the company mechanic. The inspection from the cabin again revealed deficiencies. This time icicles were hanging from the leading edge of the wing and the engine nacelles were still caked with snow. I again told the Mechanic that deicing was unacceptable and that the crews must remove all ice and snow. We departed after the third deice application. By this time it had stopped snowing. This was fortunate because it appeared there was no type 2 fluid applied after the type 1 application was completed; even though the deice data supplied to the cockpit indicated type 2 was applied. This is the worst deicing process I have ever witnessed. It is quite clear to me that this station is completely incapable of following approved company deicing procedures. It is extremely disheartening to be told that deicing is complete by a company mechanic when it is abundantly clear that it is not. The 'clean airplane concept' is not understood by this station. This situation requires immediate attention.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.