Narrative:

We left the gate late due to our deadhead flight arriving late (we had held for over an hour due to blizzard conditions at our departure airport). We pushed back and taxied out with no issues. Our taxi route was to the deice pad; follow an MD80. Iceman assigned us spot X and told us we would be next to go in about 4-5 minutes. I relayed the information to ground and when the spot opened we were cleared to taxi into place where iceman told us to set brakes and configure for deicing. I told him we would be requiring type I and iv and that I would advise when the breaks were set and we were configured. The captain and I configured the aircraft according to the 'pre-deice configuration check - engines running' checklist and advised iceman that we were configured. The trucks moved into position; one on the captain's side of the nose and one on my (the first officer's) side of the nose. Then we felt the whole aircraft move. It felt as if we were being blown by extremely strong jet blast; but there were no aircraft in the vicinity that would have caused that; and I have never experienced any blast that would have moved the aircraft that much. The captain and I both looked at each other and inquired to what just happened. Immediately I contacted iceman on the radio; inquiring as to what happened. No one on the frequency would answer me. The other trucks that had been working on the other aircraft in the pad around us; all stopped their operations and moved over to us to shine their lights on the aft part of our plane. There was still no answer from iceman on the radio. And the captain got on the frequency and started to inquire. They finally came back to us and answered the captain's inquiry; telling us that a deice truck had just struck our tail on the first officer's side. At this time; arff responded; and the captain was coordinating with dispatch; iceman; ground; arff; and had me talk to operations to arrange for a gate return. Operations told us to not move the aircraft; dispatch asked us to call maintenance. The iceman boss asked us to stay put; so that they could take some photographs; and arff told us that the damage didn't appear to be anything that would be compromising to the safety of everyone around. Then the captain also informed the folks in the back about the situation and that it would be a little while before we would be able to move; and he then called the chief pilot. After everything was organized; we had a gate; an arff escort that would be following us back to the gate.we ended up swapping aircraft and continuing to our destination. I believe; based on the visible damage that a truck from another part of the pad was passing behind our aircraft and the driver was not aware of the position of the bucket. And so he/she didn't allow enough clearance behind the tail of our aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ900 First Officer reports being struck by a passing deice truck in the deice pad.

Narrative: We left the gate late due to our deadhead flight arriving late (we had held for over an hour due to blizzard conditions at our departure airport). We pushed back and taxied out with no issues. Our taxi route was to the deice pad; follow an MD80. Iceman assigned us Spot X and told us we would be next to go in about 4-5 minutes. I relayed the information to Ground and when the spot opened we were cleared to taxi into place where iceman told us to set brakes and configure for deicing. I told him we would be requiring Type I and IV and that I would advise when the breaks were set and we were configured. The Captain and I configured the aircraft according to the 'Pre-Deice Configuration Check - Engines Running' checklist and advised iceman that we were configured. The trucks moved into position; one on the Captain's side of the nose and one on my (the First Officer's) side of the nose. Then we felt the whole aircraft move. It felt as if we were being blown by extremely strong jet blast; but there were no aircraft in the vicinity that would have caused that; and I have never experienced any blast that would have moved the aircraft that much. The Captain and I both looked at each other and inquired to what just happened. Immediately I contacted iceman on the radio; inquiring as to what happened. No one on the frequency would answer me. The other trucks that had been working on the other aircraft in the pad around us; all stopped their operations and moved over to us to shine their lights on the aft part of our plane. There was still no answer from iceman on the radio. And the Captain got on the frequency and started to inquire. They finally came back to us and answered the Captain's inquiry; telling us that a deice truck had just struck our tail on the First Officer's side. At this time; ARFF responded; and the Captain was coordinating with Dispatch; iceman; Ground; ARFF; and had me talk to Operations to arrange for a gate return. Operations told us to not move the aircraft; Dispatch asked us to call Maintenance. The iceman boss asked us to stay put; so that they could take some photographs; and ARFF told us that the damage didn't appear to be anything that would be compromising to the safety of everyone around. Then the Captain also informed the folks in the back about the situation and that it would be a little while before we would be able to move; and he then called the Chief Pilot. After everything was organized; we had a gate; an ARFF escort that would be following us back to the gate.We ended up swapping aircraft and continuing to our destination. I believe; based on the visible damage that a truck from another part of the pad was passing behind our aircraft and the driver was not aware of the position of the bucket. And so he/she didn't allow enough clearance behind the tail of our aircraft.

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.