Narrative:

After landing and taxiing; upon leaving the taxiway at a very slow speed with the engines at idle; I entered the ramp area and encountered a solid sheet of ice that encompassed the whole ramp area. No ramp ice had been reported by company weather/NOTAMS; ground control; nor ramp personnel. As soon as I saw the unreported ice; I applied the brakes on the aircraft with no braking results. Braking was nil. The aircraft went into a slow uncontrollable slide into the ramp parking area that had a decline into the assigned parking spot. I immediately used the engine reversers in an attempt to stop the aircraft sliding. The reversers slowed the sliding; but the aircraft was still moving. I varied the reverser power trying to arrest the slide and control the aircraft. There was no nosewheel steering whatsoever. After repeated usage of the engine reversers; I stopped the aircraft from sliding shut down the engines; and applied the pneumatic brakes. I hoped that the aircraft would hold its position; which it did. The maintenance representative contacted me via aircraft ics and attached the ramp tug to the aircraft to hold its position. The aircraft which I had started to stop approximately 3 aircraft lengths from the parking spot; stopped at 1 aircraft length at a 30 degree crab. There was no deicing material on the ramp. Subsequently; ramp personnel used fertilizer spreaders to spread ice melt on the ramp as we watched from the cockpit. They wanted me to be towed in to the spot; but I firmly told them that the aircraft was not going to move any further. Eventually; we exited the aircraft and I did an exterior walkaround to assess any damage. There was none noted. I looked at the ramp area and the ice was estimated at 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick with no concrete nor asphalt exposed. It was a solid sheet of ice. The ramp manager should have closed the ramp or deiced the ramp earlier. No attempts to deice the ramp were noted by the flight crew until after this incident. Fortunately; no one was hurt and there was no exterior aircraft damage. It could have been a much different situation if I had arrived on schedule and due to the early dawn; I would not have seen the solid ramp ice.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B727-200 flight crew experiences an uncontrollable slide on the ramp while attempting to park.

Narrative: After landing and taxiing; upon leaving the taxiway at a very slow speed with the engines at idle; I entered the ramp area and encountered a solid sheet of ice that encompassed the whole ramp area. No ramp ice had been reported by company weather/NOTAMS; Ground Control; nor ramp personnel. As soon as I saw the unreported ice; I applied the brakes on the aircraft with no braking results. Braking was nil. The aircraft went into a slow uncontrollable slide into the ramp parking area that had a decline into the assigned parking spot. I immediately used the engine reversers in an attempt to stop the aircraft sliding. The reversers slowed the sliding; but the aircraft was still moving. I varied the reverser power trying to arrest the slide and control the aircraft. There was no nosewheel steering whatsoever. After repeated usage of the engine reversers; I stopped the aircraft from sliding shut down the engines; and applied the pneumatic brakes. I hoped that the aircraft would hold its position; which it did. The Maintenance Representative contacted me via aircraft ICS and attached the ramp tug to the aircraft to hold its position. The aircraft which I had started to stop approximately 3 aircraft lengths from the parking spot; stopped at 1 aircraft length at a 30 degree crab. There was no deicing material on the ramp. Subsequently; ramp personnel used fertilizer spreaders to spread ice melt on the ramp as we watched from the cockpit. They wanted me to be towed in to the spot; but I firmly told them that the aircraft was not going to move any further. Eventually; we exited the aircraft and I did an exterior walkaround to assess any damage. There was none noted. I looked at the ramp area and the ice was estimated at 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick with no concrete nor asphalt exposed. It was a solid sheet of ice. The Ramp Manager should have closed the ramp or deiced the ramp earlier. No attempts to deice the ramp were noted by the flight crew until after this incident. Fortunately; no one was hurt and there was no exterior aircraft damage. It could have been a much different situation if I had arrived on schedule and due to the early dawn; I would not have seen the solid ramp ice.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of May 2009 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.