can you tell if a plane's iced up by looking at it?

hi - lurker here, but reading my local tv new's site and this seems like an odd
statement from an eyewitness, i believe the correct term is "notoriously
unreliable" eyewitness

key phrase:

"The one wing that was still there was iced up pretty heavy," said Doug
Percival, who was driving by at the time of the crash and one of the first
people to get to the burning plane.

can you actually tell if a wing is iced up from driving by a moving aircraft? i
have my 40 hours of instrument, (no ticket yet), but would be curious to know
if you could tell outside of the cockpit - plus maybe it wasn't deiced because
the plane was hangared.

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GRAND JUNCTION - The jet that crashed Sunday with NBC executive Dick Ebersol
aboard, wasn't de-iced before taking off.

9NEWS mountain newsroom reporter Matt Renoux updates the story. 9NEWS at noon.
November 29, 2004.

MTJ Air Services, the company that handles de-icing services at the airport,
did de-ice a commercial jet that took off shortly before the charter plane that
Ebersol and two of his three sons were aboard. The company says that the pilot
flying Ebersol's plane declined de-icing services.

The CL-602 Challenger crashed Sunday morning as it was attempting to take off
from Montrose Regional Airport. The plane never left the ground. Instead, it
slipped off the runway, hurtled across a road and burst into flames as it
ploughed across a field.

"The one wing that was still there was iced up pretty heavy," said Doug
Percival, who was driving by at the time of the crash and one of the first
people to get to the burning plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board is just beginning its investigation
into the crash. Some NTSB members are already in Montrose and will hold their
first briefing Monday evening. More experts from around the country are on
their way. The investigative team will include the engineers who helped build
the plane's engine, to see whether there was a mechanical failure.

Ebersol and his older son Charles survived the crash and are being treated at
St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. Fourteen-year-old Edward "Teddy" Ebersol
is still missing and presumed dead. NTSB investigators haven't been able to
closely examine the wreckage yet.

There were three crewmembers on board the plane. Jet Alliance, the company that
owns the aircraft, confirms that the pilot, Captain Luis Palanco Espaillat, 50,
and a cabin attendant, Warren T. Richardson III, 36, were killed. A co-pilot,
whose name hasn't been released, is being treated at Montrose Hospital.

Jet Alliance says Palanco Espaillat was a 20-year veteran with over 12,000
hours total flying time and over 900 hours in Challenger aircraft.