A C421C exited the taxiway and stopped when the brakes apparently failed.

Attributes
ACN	908162
Time
Date	201009
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	Golden Eagle 421
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Normal Brake System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Instructor Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 16000 Flight Crew Type 400
Events
Anomaly	Ground Excursion Taxiway Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

I was in the right seat taxiing out to the runway. While taxiing out the brakes failed according to the copilot. I think he got a little excited and pushed on the steering without activating the brakes. By the time I was able to take control; a matter of seconds; the aircraft started to depart the taxiway past the hold short line on the runway. I tried to override the copilot on the brakes and at the same time pulled the mixtures off. The nose wheel of the aircraft stopped about 3 ft off the taxiway. There was no damage to aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C421C exited the taxiway and stopped when the brakes apparently failed.

Narrative: I was in the right seat taxiing out to the runway. While taxiing out the brakes failed according to the copilot. I think he got a little excited and pushed on the steering without activating the brakes. By the time I was able to take control; a matter of seconds; the aircraft started to depart the taxiway past the hold short line on the runway. I tried to override the copilot on the brakes and at the same time pulled the mixtures off. The nose wheel of the aircraft stopped about 3 FT off the taxiway. There was no damage to aircraft.

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.