Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine
Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; General Maintenance Action
Weather
First officer conducted preflight walk around; reported icy ramp and difficulty walking on slippery surface; we discussed this with Dispatcher as she was on the phone with me regarding an issue (non- related to event).Determined we could safely taxi the aircraft to deicing bay by applying extreme precaution during taxi ops. Non-movement area was fine; as well as taxi to pad 1; but upon being cleared into pad line 1; as we attempted to line up on proper reference line; aircraft did not respond to tiller input and began to slide towards deicing trucks/cherry picker. I asked the First Officer to make radio call to move trucks while applying full reverse thrust in an effort to stop our forward movement along with full right tiller; that worked after approximate 3-5 seconds. [We] stopped the aircraft; advised deice crew; they made a comment they saw what was happening; but were unable to get the trucks to move out of the way in that short time span. We were able to get the nose wheel to gain traction after the event and turn into the lane requested by deice. I made a PA to our passengers as required regarding deice procedures and a brief explanation as to why they heard unusually loud engine noises. Subsequent de/anti-icing was normal. We made radio reports to deice crew; ATC GRD; and made a phone call to our Dispatcher reporting the conditions in the deice pad. No contact was made with any ground equipment; all engine indications were normal throughout the remaining time spent on ground; taxi; TO; cruise; descent; and landing.NIL braking and essentially nil steering capability in deice pad lane 1. In hindsight; several things come to mind. I should not have taken an angle on the parking line; and avoided any movement in direction of the equipment. In other words; I should have crept into a 90 [degree] turn to join the line; and paralleled all ground equipment. Secondly; a better job cleaning that area; or at least better communications with the ice man regarding how poor the conditions were. Thirdly; there was no reason for using the line closest to the equipment when we could have had a buffer zone in any of the lanes away from the equipment; I would have requested lane 2 or 3 to maintain a no transgression zone until we were stopped in the proper location.
Weather conditions at time of event and the preceding night consisted of light freezing drizzle and were verified during walk around by a thin coat of ice covering ramp area. Captain and I discussed conditions during briefing and the appropriate caution was demonstrated during the taxi out to deice pad. While taxiing out with ground we indicated the need for deicing and we were directed to the designated area consisting of multiple lanes for deicing. Upon reachingthe instructed lane; the captain turned to intercept parking line and indicated that the aircraft was not responding to tiller input and brake application. The aircraft began to slide and was approaching deicing equipment. Unable to stop aircraft with braking alone; the captain used reverse thrust to aid in stopping the aircraft. We instructed the deice crew to move equipment in case the aircraft could not be stopped in time. The event duration was only about 3-5 seconds and did not result in any impact with deice equipment or ground crew vehicles. Engine parameters remained stable and no malfunctions were evident. Subsequent aircraft deicing occurred and a normal takeoff and flight followed. The braking action was reported on all taxiways as being good to fair in spots which was verified as we taxied out to deice pad; However; the deice pad seemed to have degraded conditions and contributed to the degraded braking action which was considered to be nil.Possibly include braking action reports in deice pad or a check of conditions. However; I believe we were the first or one of the first aircrafts to deice that morning; which meant there was not much information to be relayed to us which also contributed to the event. Also; the Pad consisted of several open lanes for deicing; however we were instructed to intercept the line closest to where equipment was parked. Had we transitioned to a lane not as close to where equipment was parked there would have been a greater buffer area in case poor braking conditions were encountered.
A319 flight crew reported NIL braking action and traction at the deicing pad.