Narrative:

This event occurred because of the confusing location of the uniform 9 designations. The lido chart 3-10 for dtw shows two 'U9' designations. One is halfway down the taxiway and the other one is near Q1. Both of us thought that uniform 9 was near the beginning of runway 4R. As we were taxiing on uniform; I noticed that the taxi instructions did not make sense. However; we had already passed taxiway uniform 9 before I could confirm the taxi instructions.after pushing back from the gate in dtw; we were cleared by ramp control to 2N. I contacted ground and we were given the following taxi clearance: uniform; hold short of uniform 9; contact ground on 121.8. As we turned onto uniform we passed uniform 9 without holding short. By the time I realized we passed uniform 9; I contacted ground (119.45) which was our previous ground frequency. He told us to contact ground. I contacted ground on 121.8 and he said we should have held short of bravo. The captain at that point stopped the aircraft so we could clarify our taxi instructions. I was confused because the previous controller told us to hold short of uniform 9 not taxiway B. We taxied to runway 4R without further incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported a taxiway incursion due to an ambiguous taxi clearance and poor airport signage and charting at DTW.

Narrative: This event occurred because of the confusing location of the Uniform 9 designations. The LIDO chart 3-10 for DTW shows two 'U9' designations. One is halfway down the taxiway and the other one is near Q1. Both of us thought that Uniform 9 was near the beginning of runway 4R. As we were taxiing on Uniform; I noticed that the taxi instructions did not make sense. However; we had already passed taxiway Uniform 9 before I could confirm the taxi instructions.After pushing back from the gate in DTW; we were cleared by ramp control to 2N. I contacted ground and we were given the following taxi clearance: Uniform; Hold Short of Uniform 9; contact ground on 121.8. As we turned onto Uniform we passed Uniform 9 without holding short. By the time I realized we passed Uniform 9; I contacted ground (119.45) which was our previous ground frequency. He told us to contact ground. I contacted ground on 121.8 and he said we should have held short of Bravo. The Captain at that point stopped the aircraft so we could clarify our taxi instructions. I was confused because the previous controller told us to hold short of Uniform 9 not Taxiway B. We taxied to runway 4R without further incident.

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.