Narrative:

The previous hours report showed rain and snow earlier in the am hours. It was VFR upon our arrival at the airplane. The first officer performed the walk around and returned with the assessment that all moisture visible on the wing surfaces was water and nothing was adhering to the plane.we taxied toward the runway and the aft flight attendant called on the interphone and said a deadheading pilot saw ice on the wings. We altered our taxi course to go through the deicing bays for type 1 fluid application and departed without incident.after takeoff; I discussed with the first officer where he viewed the wings from during the walk around and he said from the jetway stairs and in front of the airplane nose.we reviewed the interior aisle overhead markings as the best view of the top of the wings as another resource for this evaluation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reported they departed the gate with undetected ice on the wings that was brought to their attention by a deadheading crew member.

Narrative: The previous hours report showed rain and snow earlier in the AM hours. It was VFR upon our arrival at the airplane. The FO performed the walk around and returned with the assessment that all moisture visible on the wing surfaces was water and nothing was adhering to the plane.We taxied toward the runway and the aft FA called on the interphone and said a deadheading pilot saw ice on the wings. We altered our taxi course to go through the deicing bays for type 1 fluid application and departed without incident.After takeoff; I discussed with the FO where he viewed the wings from during the walk around and he said from the jetway stairs and in front of the airplane nose.We reviewed the interior aisle overhead markings as the best view of the top of the wings as another resource for this evaluation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.