Narrative:

We pushed back from [the] gate with the intent to go deice due to the light freezing rain that was in the ATIS. There were no adverse reports about ramp conditions. I had just taxied in from a previous flight 30 minutes prior and the ramp was wet with good braking action. We agreed to taxi single engine to the deice pad as we were told it would be about a 20 minute wait once we got there. We turn out from the gate with no issues and began to make our way out around the terminal to taxiway J. As we were making the turn the nose wheel steering had no effect on turning the aircraft. I applied brakes and also found braking action to be nil. The aircraft began to slide towards a bank of snow paralleling the taxiway. The left main gear hit the bank; guessing less than 12 inches in height; and the aircraft slightly drifted back the opposite direction. We came to a stop; set the brake and shut down. Briefed the flight attendant and passengers and coordinated with dispatch and ramp control. Maintenance decided to inspect the aircraft prior to further movement and found no damage. We thought the best course of action would be to have the aircraft towed back into a gate. We kept the passengers up to date along the whole process. Upon reaching the gate we deplaned and debriefed accordingly with company. The mechanic had mentioned to me that it did not appear that we actually left the pavement of the ramp as the snow bank was still on pavement. It was not until later that they closed the ramp for deicing/chemical treatment and also after our gate return were the taxiways; now notamed to be field conditions (ficon) ice. Prior to that everything was considered wet including our runway tlr.I think the ramp was the last area to be treated for the coming precipitation and it was nearly an hour after we had reported nil braking action. Along with the NOTAM for ficon ice coming out after our event occurred. If they had been more proactive in treating all the areas this event likely would not have occurred.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 flight crew reported loss of aircraft control during taxi due to NIL Braking action.

Narrative: We pushed back from [the] gate with the intent to go deice due to the light freezing rain that was in the ATIS. There were no adverse reports about ramp conditions. I had just taxied in from a previous flight 30 minutes prior and the ramp was wet with good braking action. We agreed to taxi single engine to the deice pad as we were told it would be about a 20 minute wait once we got there. We turn out from the gate with no issues and began to make our way out around the terminal to taxiway J. As we were making the turn the nose wheel steering had no effect on turning the aircraft. I applied brakes and also found braking action to be NIL. The aircraft began to slide towards a bank of snow paralleling the taxiway. The left main gear hit the bank; guessing less than 12 inches in height; and the aircraft slightly drifted back the opposite direction. We came to a stop; set the brake and shut down. Briefed the Flight Attendant and passengers and coordinated with dispatch and ramp control. Maintenance decided to inspect the aircraft prior to further movement and found no damage. We thought the best course of action would be to have the aircraft towed back into a gate. We kept the passengers up to date along the whole process. Upon reaching the gate we deplaned and debriefed accordingly with company. The mechanic had mentioned to me that it did not appear that we actually left the pavement of the ramp as the snow bank was still on pavement. It was not until later that they closed the ramp for deicing/chemical treatment and also after our gate return were the taxiways; now NOTAMed to be Field Conditions (FICON) ICE. Prior to that everything was considered wet including our runway TLR.I think the ramp was the last area to be treated for the coming precipitation and it was nearly an hour after we had reported NIL braking action. Along with the NOTAM for FICON ICE coming out after our event occurred. If they had been more proactive in treating all the areas this event likely would not have occurred.

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.