Narrative:

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.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew reported NIL braking action and traction at the deicing pad.

Narrative: 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.

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.