An air carrier flight inbound to the gate at LFPG missed the turn from D to MD3; claimed to be due to the lack of an identifying sign.

Date: 2010-02 · Aircraft: A330 · Phase: taxi

Anomalies: deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|ground-incursion-taxiway

Synopsis

An air carrier flight inbound to the gate at LFPG missed the turn from D to MD3; claimed to be due to the lack of an identifying sign.

Narrative

After landing runway 27R and clearing 27L; we were instructed by Ground Control to taxi via D; MD3; A; taxi gate 16 to our parking gate. As I taxied east on D looking for MD3 I came upon a taxiway that looked like it should be MD3 (it took a 90 degree right turn Southbound); however when I looked down that taxiway it was clearly marked as taxiway A. I proceeded ahead looking for MD3. Almost as soon as I continued past that intersection the Ground Controller told us that we had missed our turn and gave us an alternate taxi route which we used and taxied to our gate uneventfully. Upon reaching the gate I closely examined the airport charts and could clearly see that the charts and airport markings did not match. I called Ground Control and mentioned that fact to him and he just gave us a difficult to understand reply that basically dismissed my comment. Interestingly; another inbound flight; which had been assigned the same taxi route as us; heard my comments and piped in and agreed with me that the taxi charts and taxiway markings did not match with regard to MD3. Also; to the best of my recollection; there was not a sign in advance of the intersection in question that told what the upcoming intersecting taxiway was; nor was it painted on the pavement as they do in other instances. While some of LFPG's taxiways are clearly marked; there are instances such as the above; and others; which need to be addressed.

NASA callback

The reporter clarified that they had taxied beyond MD3 on D because the only sign at MD3 was down the taxiway where MD3 changes to A; the outer circular taxiway around the terminal.

More incidents for this aircraft family →

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.