A flight attendant was thrown against a passenger seat and injured her shoulder when the flight crew...

Narrative:

This event occurred during taxi-in to the gate. After waiting for the ground crew to get in position; we began forward motion. As we started an approximately 90 degree right turn to the marshaling line; the aircraft stopped turning and went straight. I looked over to the captain and saw him turning the nose steering wheel to the right. The aircraft did not respond to nose wheel steering inputs. I was not sure of the problem; but I considered a hydraulic failure as a cause. I looked out the windshield and noted that we were still moving forward and approaching the terminal building. I firmly applied the brakes; and the aircraft stopped abruptly. While coordinating with ops to be pulled into the gate; we learned that the R1 flight attendant had been thrown from her jump seat and hit her shoulder on the back of a passenger seat. After being tugged into the gate; the shutdown was uneventful. We later learned that a broken steering cable was the cause. While the incident was caused by a mechanical failure; the injury was caused by abrupt braking. With more information; time; and better communication between the flight crew; the abrupt braking may have been avoided.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Flight Attendant was thrown against a passenger seat and injured her shoulder when the flight crew was forced to brake abruptly due to the loss of nose wheel steering as they approached the gate in a 90 degree turn and the steering castered to straight ahead toward the terminal.

Narrative: This event occurred during taxi-in to the gate. After waiting for the ground crew to get in position; we began forward motion. As we started an approximately 90 degree right turn to the marshaling line; the aircraft stopped turning and went straight. I looked over to the Captain and saw him turning the nose steering wheel to the right. The aircraft did not respond to nose wheel steering inputs. I was not sure of the problem; but I considered a hydraulic failure as a cause. I looked out the windshield and noted that we were still moving forward and approaching the terminal building. I firmly applied the brakes; and the aircraft stopped abruptly. While coordinating with ops to be pulled into the gate; we learned that the R1 Flight Attendant had been thrown from her jump seat and hit her shoulder on the back of a passenger seat. After being tugged into the gate; the shutdown was uneventful. We later learned that a broken steering cable was the cause. While the incident was caused by a mechanical failure; the injury was caused by abrupt braking. With more information; time; and better communication between the flight crew; the abrupt braking MAY have been avoided.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1032263
Time
Date	201208
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B717 (Formerly MD-95)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nosewheel Steering
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

A flight attendant was thrown against a passenger seat and injured her shoulder when the flight crew was forced to brake abruptly due to the loss of nose wheel steering as they approached the gate in a 90 degree turn and the steering castered to straight ahead toward the terminal.