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Dash-8 captain questions dispatching an aircraft with MEL'd nosewheel steering with ice and snow on the airport surfaces.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 932266 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201102 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | IMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Dash 8-200 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Taxi |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Nosewheel Steering |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence |
Narrative:
Upon taxi out the rain was making the contaminated ground surfaces [more] slippery. The nose steering was MEL'd with only a crosswind limitation. Every time we tried to turn the aircraft on the way to the de-ice pad; it was difficult to turn. Upon trying to enter the de-ice pad we tried to make a left turn by applying left brake and adding right power. The aircraft turned right instead of left! We were unable to maintain directional control of the aircraft and had to immediately slam the brakes to stop from going into the snow/grass between the taxiway and runway. With the slippery conditions; it was difficult maintaining directional control every time a turn was made because of nose steering being unavailable.degraded ground conditions and contaminated surfaces are already challenging enough with nose steering available. I do believe it is an unsafe operating environment when the nose steering is unavailable. The MEL should be much more restrictive than just to crosswinds.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Dash-8 Captain questions dispatching an aircraft with MEL'd nosewheel steering with ice and snow on the airport surfaces.
Narrative: Upon taxi out the rain was making the contaminated ground surfaces [more] slippery. The nose steering was MEL'd with only a crosswind limitation. Every time we tried to turn the aircraft on the way to the de-ice pad; it was difficult to turn. Upon trying to enter the de-ice pad we tried to make a left turn by applying left brake and adding right power. The aircraft turned right instead of left! We were unable to maintain directional control of the aircraft and had to immediately slam the brakes to stop from going into the snow/grass between the taxiway and runway. With the slippery conditions; it was difficult maintaining directional control every time a turn was made because of nose steering being unavailable.Degraded ground conditions and contaminated surfaces are already challenging enough with nose steering available. I do believe it is an unsafe operating environment when the nose steering is unavailable. The MEL should be much more restrictive than just to crosswinds.
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.