Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Airport; Human Factors; Procedure; Weather
At the gate in PBG I performed the exterior walk around.  This allowed me to observe the conditions of an icy ramp and the strong winds.  The only dry portion of the ramp was where the tug was located.  The winds were strong out of the west; strong enough to lean into and not fall over.  At this time the aircraft was facing north.  The weather conditions being reported by the AWOS in PBG were not accurate.  AWOS was calling wind 8 knots gusting to 21 knots.  The tug driver attempted to push the aircraft from the gate area two different times but did not succeed because there was too much ice on the ground to completely push the airplane back.  After the second attempt; the aircraft tail slowly started slide to the right with the tug still attached to the nose gear and the parking break on.  The plane didn't come to a stop until it was weathervaned into the  wind.  The aircraft turned about 70 degrees and slid about 40 feet.  In the midst of all this happening; I yelled for the ground crew to chalk the main gear quickly.  We then sat for 2.5 hours waiting on sand to arrive.  For future reference; the ramp needs to be sanded every time there are icy conditions to prevent what had happened to us happen to other crews.
Air Carrier Captain reports slippery ramp conditions at PBG making it impossible for the tug to gain enough traction to push the aircraft back; then resulting in the aircraft weather vanning 70 degrees into the wind.  Flight delayed waiting for sand.