Narrative:

During taxi out the flight attendant called and informed us that a commuting pilot had told her that we had frost on the wings. We pulled into a holding pad; and the first officer went back to re-inspect the wings. We did have thin frost which he described as in a box like pattern over the fuel tanks. We returned to a gate and were de-iced. How this happened: we arrived at the aircraft more than 1 hour before departure. The first officer probably did the preflight walk around prior to fueling the aircraft. It was very cold; approximately 15-20F. Afterwards the first officer and I 'discussed' the need to do the wing inspection from the cabin after fueling and closer to departure time. A contributing issue was when I arrived at the gate I looked out and saw our aircraft in the bright sun; looking clean; sitting in puddles of de-ice fluid. I wrongly assumed the aircraft may have been pre-treated. When I boarded; I found the aircraft to be warm and looking like it had just flown in. Again; I was wrong; the aircraft was an over-nighter. I took the bait; and with my wrong assumptions; didn't get a verbal 'clean wings' statement from the first officer. The wing tanks were filled to full in what was a cold soaked aircraft. I reviewed the procedures in the operating handbook with the first officer during the flight. To prevent this; obviously we both need to be more vigilant and not take the bait of sunny; later morning departure; warm aircraft. Beyond that; adding 'icing considerations' to the checklist may help. Humbled and humiliated; this won't happen to me again. I hope others will learn from the experience.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD80 flight crew is informed during taxi that a commuting pilot had detected frost on the wings. Frost is confirmed by the First Officer and the flight returns to the gate to be deiced.

Narrative: During taxi out the Flight Attendant called and informed us that a commuting pilot had told her that we had frost on the wings. We pulled into a holding pad; and the First Officer went back to re-inspect the wings. We did have thin frost which he described as in a box like pattern over the fuel tanks. We returned to a gate and were de-iced. How this happened: We arrived at the aircraft more than 1 hour before departure. The First Officer probably did the preflight walk around prior to fueling the aircraft. It was very cold; approximately 15-20F. Afterwards the First Officer and I 'discussed' the need to do the wing inspection from the cabin after fueling and closer to departure time. A contributing issue was when I arrived at the gate I looked out and saw our aircraft in the bright sun; looking clean; sitting in puddles of de-ice fluid. I wrongly assumed the aircraft may have been pre-treated. When I boarded; I found the aircraft to be warm and looking like it had just flown in. Again; I was wrong; the aircraft was an over-nighter. I took the bait; and with my wrong assumptions; didn't get a verbal 'clean wings' statement from the First Officer. The wing tanks were filled to FULL in what was a cold soaked aircraft. I reviewed the procedures in the operating handbook with the First Officer during the flight. To prevent this; obviously we both need to be more vigilant and not take the bait of sunny; later morning departure; warm aircraft. Beyond that; adding 'icing considerations' to the checklist may help. Humbled and humiliated; this won't happen to me again. I hope others will learn from the experience.

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.