An air carrier crew pushed back in atl was notified by an FAA inspector seated in the cabin that he ...

Narrative:

I did a walk-around and came back to the cockpit noticing dew on the wings with a temperature of 04C and a dew point of 02C. We pushed off the gate and our #4 flight attendant informed us that a passenger said there is frost on the wings. I went back to look at the wings from inside the aircraft and; once again determined that what the passenger was seeing was dew. The passenger then informed our flight attendant that he was an FAA inspector and we had him come to the cockpit to talk with us; at which time we told him we believed what he was seeing was dew. The airplane had been in atl overnight and the temperature was never lower than 04C. We then taxied out for takeoff and our off time the temperature was about 45F. Our overwing heater was operative and we had complied with every procedure in our operating manual. In addition; there was also no other airplanes in atl that morning deicing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier crew pushed back in ATL was notified by an FAA Inspector seated in the cabin that he saw frost on the wing after the First Officer discovered no frost on the walk around and the OAT was never lower than 39F.

Narrative: I did a walk-around and came back to the cockpit noticing dew on the wings with a temperature of 04C and a dew point of 02C. We pushed off the gate and our #4 Flight Attendant informed us that a passenger said there is frost on the wings. I went back to look at the wings from inside the aircraft and; once again determined that what the passenger was seeing was dew. The passenger then informed our Flight Attendant that he was an FAA Inspector and we had him come to the cockpit to talk with us; at which time we told him we believed what he was seeing was dew. The airplane had been in ATL overnight and the temperature was never lower than 04C. We then taxied out for takeoff and our OFF time the temperature was about 45F. Our overwing heater was operative and we had complied with every procedure in our operating manual. In addition; there was also no other airplanes in ATL that morning deicing.

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.

Attributes
ACN	976228
Time
Date	201110
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Person 2
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

An air carrier crew pushed back in atl was notified by an FAA inspector seated in the cabin that he saw frost on the wing after the first officer discovered no frost on the walk around and the OAT was never lower than 39F.