Air Carrier flight crew is surprised to discover there are no taxiway centerline lead off lights after landing on Runway 28 at ORD in low visibility conditions. Runway 32L is used for taxi after missing Taxiway Tango.

2010-03 · NASA ASRS report 877419

Date: 2010-03 · Aircraft: A319 · Phase: taxi

Anomalies: no-specific-anomaly-occurred-all-types

Synopsis

Air Carrier flight crew is surprised to discover there are no taxiway centerline lead off lights after landing on Runway 28 at ORD in low visibility conditions. Runway 32L is used for taxi after missing Taxiway Tango.

Narrative

I wanted to bring to the attention of flight ops an issue that was a surprise to the Captain and myself during an ILS 28 CAT 3B approach to Runway 28 at ORD. The RVR was reported 800-700-800. We had available to us the Low Vis Taxi chart for 600-1200 RVR for the 28 Arrival. As we rolled out; we expected to see some taxi guidance to aid our turn off. The chart depicts the taxi route as a Tango turn off; to join Tango; and then A10 Alpha. As the RVR was only 700 mid field; we could barely see; and we missed Tango because there were no taxi-way turn off centerline lights. We then taxied slowly up to Runway 32L per tower instructions; and struggled to turn off on that route as well. When we turned off the runway; we queried ATC as to where the taxi turn off lights were; and he said 'that's all we got; it is what it is.' The purpose of this report is to alert pilots that even though there is a Low Visibility Taxi Chart for ORD; there IS NOT ANY proper visual aids to aid pilots as to where to exit in very low visibility conditions. We were expecting green turn off lights and other SMGCS criteria. If there had been snow obscuring the center line markings and/or taxi signs; we would not have been able to taxi safely off the runway. We were pressed to exit quickly; as a flight was on approach right behind us. I just wanted to send this as an FYI; that what we were trained to see; and expected to have available to us was not there. We were surprised that ORD was not equipped with this important safety feature. The published chart was useless to us.

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

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