«The wing de-icing mechanism at Elmas airport is planned and is very sophisticated. The service has always been in operation until a few days ago, when a technical problem arose which made it necessary to suspend it pending some investigations, communicated well in advance to the various airlines". This was Sogaer's reassurance, which arrived on 23 January, when the Sardinian deputy of the Brothers of Italy, chairman of the Transport commission of the Chamber, Salvatore Deidda, had denounced that he had remained on the ground due to the ice on the wings of the aircraft on which he had to embark: that morning the connections were delayed by up to three hours. All the fault of the low temperatures, according to the management company, which arrived just as the complex deicing system – always working, it had been underlined – was experiencing a short period of failure.
But something doesn't add up. Sogaer defined today as a "historic day". Reason? "Almost 100 years after the first flight, for the first time", is the announcement, "this morning, due to the unusual temperatures for the city, de-icing operations were carried out on a flight".
All put on paper by the institution that only a week ago spoke of a short interruption due to a breakdown: «300 liters of glycol-based liquid were dispensed on the Ita Az 1588 flight to Rome Fiumicino thanks to sophisticated and complex equipment» . The one that in theory was only stopped for a short time. «The treatment lasted 8 minutes and allowed the flight to depart in total safety and on time», continues the Sogaer note, «Subsequently, the deicing treatment was also carried out on other departing aircraft and is therefore available in case repeat these exceptional weather conditions.
Two versions, released in a limited time frame, which do not seem to reconcile each other.
Not only. The specialized magazine Avoinews in 2019 wrote that the deicing machines at Mario Mameli were there. What was missing was the ministerial authorization for their use.
And going back even further in time we arrive at 2017: in November of that year the management company had awarded the tender for the "supply of the" deicer "machinery for removing ice from aircraft: it had cost 288 thousand euros. More than five years have passed since then.
Henry Fresu