Narrative:

Potential plane to plane collision on the dia ramp. Had normal approach; landing and taxi to an taxiway. Contacted ramp and confirmed gate. Clear night without many planes at the gate and no visual clues as to the desired gate. Made a turn towards the gate location. First officer (first officer) said 'stop the plane.' captain applied the brakes and turned away from the gate area and spotted an opposite direction plane on taxiway bs. The other aircraft was able to continue on taxiway bs and we turned behind him and continued to the gate. This was at the end of a scheduled 3 leg 8 flight hours day. Actual flight time at this point was 7:20+. Flight the previous night was delayed over 2 hours and arrived on the east coast at 2 am. Pilots based in the west and both woke up on home body clock resulting in 5:30 - 6 hours of sleep. The one and only communication I heard from company ramp was when we called entering the ramp and our gate assignment. Very few planes parked at gates. Not aware of any other aircraft on the ramp. Lots of surface movement of tugs; carts; catering and such near the terminal building. We were having difficultly spotting our loading bridge. The majority of the lighted loading bridge numbers were off. There were no rampers waiting at the gate with wands. In fact I had to stop and make a PA for the passengers to remain seated while the rampers came out of the gate office. First officer was counting gates out from the center of the concourse trying to identify our gate. I was counting gates down from the other ramp area trying to identify the gate. I believe the gate had a lighted number but it was at an angle to the ramp and not readable. The customer service agent was not on the loading bridge (even after we parked) so there was no yellow beacon. The other jet did have a taxi light but it blended in with the general lighting in the ramp area. Ramp control never referenced the other jet. The other jet never said anything. I believe there was no aspect change so we did not pick up the other jet. Fatigue had to figure into this problem. Ramp control was obviously not looking. The other jet did nothing to help. We were distracted in identification of the gate. No rampers with lighted wands and no loading bridge beacon. All combined for a near collision.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier Captain reported a near aircraft/aircraft collision at DIA while taxiing toward the assigned gate at night with no warning from Ramp Control about the opposite direction aircraft. Nearing the gate; ground traffic and no taxi guidance added further complexity to the crew's fatigue and confusion.

Narrative: Potential plane to plane collision on the DIA ramp. Had normal approach; landing and taxi to AN Taxiway. Contacted Ramp and confirmed gate. Clear night without many planes at the gate and no visual clues as to the desired gate. Made a turn towards the gate location. First Officer (FO) said 'STOP THE PLANE.' Captain applied the brakes and turned away from the gate area and spotted an opposite direction plane on Taxiway BS. The other aircraft was able to continue on Taxiway BS and we turned behind him and continued to the gate. This was at the end of a scheduled 3 leg 8 flight hours day. Actual flight time at this point was 7:20+. Flight the previous night was delayed over 2 hours and arrived on the East coast at 2 AM. Pilots based in the west and both woke up on home body clock resulting in 5:30 - 6 hours of sleep. The one and only communication I heard from Company Ramp was when we called entering the ramp and our gate assignment. Very few planes parked at gates. Not aware of any other aircraft on the ramp. Lots of surface movement of tugs; carts; catering and such near the terminal building. We were having difficultly spotting our loading bridge. The majority of the lighted loading bridge numbers were off. There were no rampers waiting at the gate with wands. In fact I had to stop and make a PA for the passengers to remain seated while the rampers came out of the gate office. First Officer was counting gates out from the center of the concourse trying to identify our gate. I was counting gates down from the other ramp area trying to identify the gate. I believe the gate had a lighted number but it was at an angle to the ramp and not readable. The customer service agent was not on the loading bridge (even after we parked) so there was no yellow beacon. The other jet did have a taxi light but it blended in with the general lighting in the ramp area. Ramp control never referenced the other jet. The other jet never said anything. I believe there was no aspect change so we did not pick up the other jet. Fatigue had to figure into this problem. Ramp Control was obviously not looking. The other jet did nothing to help. We were distracted in ID of the gate. No rampers with lighted wands and no loading bridge beacon. All combined for a near collision.

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.