Freezing rain: What do the airline pilots do?

Peter R. wrote:

Thanks, Chris. Regarding the above, that may be true for departing
aircraft, but what about aircraft on approach to a busy airport? It is
certainly probable that these aircraft may be vectored around at lower
altitudes for many minutes at slower speeds. I would imagine that if this
occurs in heavy freezing rain this could be a real problem, no?


ATC is very good about working with pilots to get out of severe ice
when/if it happens. AFAIK no anti-ice system on any aircraft will keep
up with severe icing so the only solution is get outta Dodge. This
situation happened to me once on a charter trip in the Pilatus. We were
being vectored for an ILS and were outside the marker being turned onto
final and I noticed the buildup on the wings. Seeing as that's a pretty
busy time we set the boots to cycle automatically, opened the inertial
separator (the engine intake is always heated) prop heat on, and flew
the approach at normal speed. Fortunately the accumulation wasn't
anything the ice systems couldn't handle.