Narrative:

It had snowed about 1 hour before our arrival and left an icy surface on the ramp and taxiways. Upon landing; braking action had been good on the runway and fair on the taxi route leading to our gate. The worst traction at that time seemed to be between taxiway a and the gate area. After pushing back from gate in bos; ground control cleared us to taxi 'alpha; alpha 1; bravo; hold short of november.' after taxiing southeast on alpha and making the left turn onto alpha 1; I attempted the right turn onto bravo. At this point; I realized the aircraft was not responding to my tiller input. I applied brakes; but there was no wheel braking effectiveness. By this point the aircraft was nearing the crest of the taxiway and not slowing; so I applied reverse thrust on both engines. The aircraft slowed and stopped nearly perpendicular to taxiway B with the nosewheel approximately 6 ft from the taxiway edge line (blue lights). Even when finally stopped; some reverse thrust was necessary to keep the aircraft from sliding closer to the edge. We called operations; and after treating and plowing the ice buildup on the edge of the taxiway; they were able to hook up a tug and tow us back to the gate. There was no apparent aircraft damage. Because of crew duty time limitations; we were unable to continue the flight. Supplemental information from acn 819644: captain ultimately was able to hold position with the right engine in what seemed to be just more than idle reverse and the left engine not in reverse. The wind was quartering tail from the left; blowing the tail to the right. We advised ATC; company operations; dispatcher; massport; flight attendants and passengers. Trucks arrived to apply sand in front of us. Then a supertug was able to get in position and lift the nosewheel. We shut down the engines and were towed back to the gate. During this process; we overheard multiple other aircraft reporting nil braking action on taxiways. At least one other had to be towed from taxiway after losing control. Additionally; there was a DC9 directly behind us in the alley that supposedly slid and jackknifed its tug into itself. We advised maintenance of the reverse thrust situation and the possibility of ingested ice/snow damage. We ended up getting rerouted off that aircraft. Captain did heroic job of keeping our aircraft on the taxi surface. The 4 of us worked efficiently and cohesively to execute a safe return to the gate.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B767 flight crew reports encountering icy taxiway during taxi out at BOS. Brakes and steering are ineffective and reverse thrust is used to stop aircraft and maintain position until help in the form of a super tug can arrive.

Narrative: It had snowed about 1 hour before our arrival and left an icy surface on the ramp and taxiways. Upon landing; braking action had been good on the runway and fair on the taxi route leading to our gate. The worst traction at that time seemed to be between Taxiway A and the gate area. After pushing back from gate in BOS; Ground Control cleared us to taxi 'Alpha; Alpha 1; Bravo; hold short of November.' After taxiing southeast on Alpha and making the left turn onto Alpha 1; I attempted the right turn onto Bravo. At this point; I realized the aircraft was not responding to my tiller input. I applied brakes; but there was no wheel braking effectiveness. By this point the aircraft was nearing the crest of the taxiway and not slowing; so I applied reverse thrust on both engines. The aircraft slowed and stopped nearly perpendicular to Taxiway B with the nosewheel approximately 6 FT from the taxiway edge line (blue lights). Even when finally stopped; some reverse thrust was necessary to keep the aircraft from sliding closer to the edge. We called operations; and after treating and plowing the ice buildup on the edge of the taxiway; they were able to hook up a tug and tow us back to the gate. There was no apparent aircraft damage. Because of crew duty time limitations; we were unable to continue the flight. Supplemental information from ACN 819644: Captain ultimately was able to hold position with the right engine in what seemed to be just more than idle reverse and the left engine not in reverse. The wind was quartering tail from the left; blowing the tail to the right. We advised ATC; Company Operations; Dispatcher; Massport; Flight Attendants and passengers. Trucks arrived to apply sand in front of us. Then a Supertug was able to get in position and lift the nosewheel. We shut down the engines and were towed back to the gate. During this process; we overheard multiple other aircraft reporting nil braking action on taxiways. At least one other had to be towed from taxiway after losing control. Additionally; there was a DC9 directly behind us in the alley that supposedly slid and jackknifed its tug into itself. We advised Maintenance of the reverse thrust situation and the possibility of ingested ice/snow damage. We ended up getting rerouted off that aircraft. Captain did heroic job of keeping our aircraft on the taxi surface. The 4 of us worked efficiently and cohesively to execute a safe return to the gate.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.