2011-07 · NASA ASRS report 960480
A CRJ-200 flight crew suffered a critical ground conflict with an MD80 when they turned onto a taxiway prior to the one by which they had been cleared and into the path of the other aircraft. A quick response by the MD80 pilot saved the day.
While taxiing into the DTW ramp via Taxiway Q; the Ramp Controller advised us that our gate was occupied and that we were to turn left at Q1; right on J11; and hold short of Q2. The Ramp Controller then told us that an MD-88 headed east on Taxiway J would give way to us. As we approached the entrance of the ramp on Taxiway Q; I became confused and misread the fairly large number of taxiway signs at the intersection. I mistakenly believed Taxiway J11 was Q1. I looked to my left and saw that there was enough room ahead of the MD-80 to enter the de-ice pad.At this point I assumed since the MD-80 was instructed to 'give way' that it was; therefore; stopped. As I made an admittedly sharp turn to J11; I saw the MD-80 rock forward as it stopped abruptly.I became confused and knew it. Instead of stopping and asking my First Officer or ATC for help; I made a quick decision and acted on it. This left nobody able to correct my error before it became consequential. While we had briefed the taxi I had not looked closely at the taxiways in the vicinity of the ramp with which I was unfamiliar.
It was our error for turning on the wrong taxiway.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.