Narrative:

After landing at cyyc on rwy 16; we exited left and were instructed to taxi north to apron two via G; and J. Approaching J on G taxiway; I saw three things: an obvious entrance to apron 2 on my right; a sign on the left with an arrow pointing right saying taxiway J; and other taxiway J signs. The quick mental assessment was to turn right and enter the ramp. I could see the marshaller showing me the alignment of the aircraft that he wanted once I was in the ramp. So I turned right and entered the ramp. My first officer had the only airport diagram and was giving me progressive instructions as we were unfamiliar with the airport. It turned out we were on a new entrance to the ramp which was not published on the chart. It was easily confused with taxiway J since they were parallel; and very close together. In the dark with patchy snow there was no discernible difference. The first officer said; looks kind of tight on that light pole. I was perfectly on the centerline of the taxiway entering the ramp. I watched out my window as we passed the light pole. I slowed as I thought it did look very tight. It became apparent that we might not miss it so I stopped the aircraft to wait for ground help which was not immediately available. When help did arrive; it became apparent that we had lightly contacted the pole. We shut down and eventually got towed out of the spot after the airport authorities allowed us to move. They wanted the fire dept to look at us as there was some kind of fuel lines or manifold nearby; and they wanted to insure there was no risk.so while we were waiting the tower says we were on a new extension to the ramp; and that it was limited to class C sized aircraft. A little late to find that out. There was no information on the airport diagram; nor markings to show us we were too big to fit. There was a small red circle sign with a line through it to the right of the entrance to the ramp. It was not noticed by us on the way in because it was not a sign I have seen before; and it was too far from the mouth of the ramp to be associated with it. We were in a widebody; very high off the ground... Pavement markings are the effective way to fix the problem. Of course it should also be on the airport pages. The bottom line is that the entrance is painted and looks very inviting. There was no information that said we should not be there. It was dark; and I misjudged the distance to my wingtip to the pole. Hopefully the situation will be rectified and wont happen again. One of the crash fire rescue equipment team told my flight engineer there had been other incidents there. During the day; or without snow; or approaching taxiway J from north to south; or with both pilots having a chart to look at; it is unlikely this would have happened. My first officer did not point out the ramp entrance not being part of taxiway J; and we got into a jam. But he was not the only problem; just one of several links which could have broken the accident chain.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A widebody transport entered Ramp 2 at CYYC utilizing an unauthorized taxiway and struck a light pole with a wingtip. The fact it was unauthorized was undocumented; and the signage was not very helpful.

Narrative: After landing at CYYC on Rwy 16; we exited left and were instructed to taxi North to Apron two via G; and J. Approaching J on G taxiway; I saw three things: an obvious entrance to Apron 2 on my right; a sign on the left with an arrow pointing right saying taxiway J; and other taxiway J signs. The quick mental assessment was to turn right and enter the ramp. I could see the marshaller showing me the alignment of the aircraft that he wanted once I was in the ramp. So I turned right and entered the ramp. My First Officer had the only airport diagram and was giving me progressive instructions as we were unfamiliar with the airport. It turned out we were on a new entrance to the ramp which was not published on the chart. It was easily confused with taxiway J since they were parallel; and very close together. In the dark with patchy snow there was no discernible difference. The First Officer said; looks kind of tight on that light pole. I was perfectly on the centerline of the taxiway entering the ramp. I watched out my window as we passed the light pole. I slowed as I thought it did look very tight. It became apparent that we might not miss it so I stopped the aircraft to wait for ground help which was not immediately available. When help did arrive; it became apparent that we had lightly contacted the pole. We shut down and eventually got towed out of the spot after the airport authorities allowed us to move. They wanted the fire dept to look at us as there was some kind of fuel lines or manifold nearby; and they wanted to insure there was no risk.So while we were waiting the tower says we were on a new extension to the ramp; and that it was limited to class C sized aircraft. A little late to find that out. There was no information on the airport diagram; nor markings to show us we were too big to fit. There was a small red circle sign with a line through it to the right of the entrance to the ramp. It was not noticed by us on the way in because it was not a sign I have seen before; and it was too far from the mouth of the ramp to be associated with it. We were in a widebody; very high off the ground... Pavement markings are the effective way to fix the problem. Of course it should also be on the airport pages. The bottom line is that the entrance is painted and looks very inviting. There was no information that said we should not be there. It was dark; and I misjudged the distance to my wingtip to the pole. Hopefully the situation will be rectified and wont happen again. One of the CFR team told my flight engineer there had been other incidents there. During the day; or without snow; or approaching taxiway J from north to south; or with both pilots having a chart to look at; it is unlikely this would have happened. My First Officer did not point out the ramp entrance not being part of taxiway J; and we got into a jam. But he was not the only problem; just one of several links which could have broken the accident chain.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.