Narrative:

We landed uneventfully at ZZZ and attempted to taxi to gate. Upon entering the ramp; we encountered nil (0) braking action; and finally came to a stop mid-ramp; abeam gate on a 45 degree angle. At this point; I asked the first officer to notify ops that braking action was nil on the ramp and that we needed ground ops to tow us to the gate. The tow was completed uneventfully. Once parked; I immediately contacted our dispatcher to inform them of the lack of braking action on the ramp. To my surprise; it appears to have taken three hours for the ramp to finally shut down for arrivals. During that time; numerous aircraft continued to arrive and encounter the icy ramp and ask for tows. It appears that these crews were not made aware of the situation prior to encountering the condition; and were not told of the nil braking action by ground ops upon initial radio contact on arrival. At the time of this incident; the braking actions were as follows: rwy-4; twy-3; rmp-0.this is the classic situation we are counseled about in every CRM/ramp resource management (rrm) briefing. If you see something; say something; we will listen. We immediately informed the following entities of the nil braking action on the ramp: ground control; ops; dispatch; and multiple company aircraft on ground ops frequency. The fact that so many more crews were exposed to this threat for over 3 hours following our report; before we finally shut down our operation; indicates a problem in our chain of command/reaction system.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported loss of aircraft control due to NIL braking action from icy conditions in the gate area.

Narrative: We landed uneventfully at ZZZ and attempted to taxi to Gate. Upon entering the ramp; we encountered NIL (0) braking action; and finally came to a stop mid-ramp; abeam Gate on a 45 degree angle. At this point; I asked the First Officer to notify Ops that braking action was NIL on the ramp and that we needed Ground Ops to tow us to the gate. The tow was completed uneventfully. Once parked; I immediately contacted our Dispatcher to inform them of the lack of braking action on the ramp. To my surprise; it appears to have taken three hours for the ramp to finally shut down for arrivals. During that time; numerous aircraft continued to arrive and encounter the icy ramp and ask for tows. It appears that these Crews were not made aware of the situation prior to encountering the condition; and were not told of the NIL braking action by Ground Ops upon initial radio contact on arrival. At the time of this incident; the braking actions were as follows: Rwy-4; Twy-3; Rmp-0.This is the classic situation we are counseled about in every CRM/Ramp Resource Management (RRM) briefing. If you see something; say something; we will listen. We immediately informed the following entities of the NIL braking action on the ramp: Ground Control; Ops; Dispatch; and multiple Company aircraft on Ground Ops frequency. The fact that so many more Crews were exposed to this threat for over 3 hours following our report; before we finally shut down our operation; indicates a problem in our chain of command/reaction system.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.