Narrative:

I was captain on flight departing bna (nashville). Conditions were snow; ice; freezing temperatures; and slick taxiways and ramp. We departed normally. The main reason for my report is the condition of the bna ramp procedures. This is a very busy terminal that shares ramp space with many different carriers. It is at the present time uncontrolled. This ramp has been controlled in the past.we pushed off the gate and started normally both engines. As we were still connected to the tow vehicle and pushed back from gate; a regional jet (rj) taxied in front of our aircraft; behind the tow vehicle and between us and the gates in a very tight space. As the rj approached; the ground crew tried to wave them to stop but they did not follow the ground crew. They continued past and stopped short of [the] gate turning their jet blast directly on the ground crew who were attempting to unhook us. The jet blast blew ice and thrust on the ground crew. There was no ground crew to lead the rj into the gate so our crew struggled and eventually unhooked and saluted us off. The spacing in this area was tight and we used all our attention to avoid any mishap as we departed. As the ramp is uncontrolled; we taxied over to the ramp area being used for deicing. This area also being uncontrolled and only contact being our operations frequency who is sitting inside the terminal with no vision of the ramp. The deicing crew guided us in a spot; but it seemed to be just a random area. Numerous rj planes were also attempting to depart; and enter their gates. It was gridlock near the gates as there was no room. We deiced and departed carefully. The deicing area was not efficiently utilized causing aircraft to sit long periods awaiting to move past others. This is not my first trip into bna that I noticed the safety of the operation is at risk due to the setup of no control on the large; very busy ramp used by competing airlines. My suggestion is a review of this airport; and return of a ramp control for safety.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reported unsafe ramp operations at BNA due to the lack of a ramp control.

Narrative: I was Captain on flight departing BNA (Nashville). Conditions were snow; ice; freezing temperatures; and slick taxiways and ramp. We departed normally. The main reason for my report is the condition of the BNA ramp procedures. This is a very busy terminal that shares ramp space with many different carriers. It is at the present time uncontrolled. This ramp has been controlled in the past.We pushed off the gate and started normally both engines. As we were still connected to the tow vehicle and pushed back from gate; a Regional Jet (RJ) taxied in front of our aircraft; behind the tow vehicle and between us and the gates in a very tight space. As the RJ approached; the ground crew tried to wave them to stop but they did not follow the ground crew. They continued past and stopped short of [the] gate turning their jet blast directly on the ground crew who were attempting to unhook us. The jet blast blew ice and thrust on the ground crew. There was no ground crew to lead the RJ into the gate so our crew struggled and eventually unhooked and saluted us off. The spacing in this area was tight and we used all our attention to avoid any mishap as we departed. As the ramp is uncontrolled; we taxied over to the ramp area being used for deicing. This area also being uncontrolled and only contact being our operations frequency who is sitting inside the terminal with no vision of the ramp. The deicing crew guided us in a spot; but it seemed to be just a random area. Numerous RJ planes were also attempting to depart; and enter their gates. It was gridlock near the gates as there was no room. We deiced and departed carefully. The deicing area was not efficiently utilized causing aircraft to sit long periods awaiting to move past others. This is not my first trip into BNA that I noticed the safety of the operation is at risk due to the setup of no control on the large; very busy ramp used by competing airlines. My suggestion is a review of this airport; and return of a ramp control for safety.

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.