B737-700
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 248; Flight Crew Type 16000
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control; Ground Event / Encounter Object
General Evacuated; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Airport
We landed on 1L in MCI. Weather was 1;000 FT ceiling and one mile with snow. I took aircraft after landing rollout and taxied clear of runway. Ground first gave taxi instructions; 'B; M' to gate and asked about braking conditions on taxiway and runway. We thought runway and taxiways were good. As we approached Taxiway M; Ground said we could use Taxiway M1. I turned onto M1 since it was a shorter distance to our gate and wouldn't require as many sharp turns on the snowy taxiways. The taxiways had some snow on them; but the yellow center lines were visible and the blue taxiway lights were highly visible as it was starting to get dark.While approaching the gate the aircraft pulled [yawed] right four or five feet. We were still on the taxiway and we were trying to figure out what happened and whether we should proceed. We then noticed that the Number 2 engine had shutdown. We notified Ground that we would need a tow and contacted Company Ops. We shut down the other engine and let the passengers know it was going to be a few minutes to get to the gate. After Ops and Company Maintenance arrived; we saw that the right main gear and engine were in a snow drift and arranged for air stairs and busses to take the passengers to the terminal.Airport Ops needs to ensure that the taxiways are better cleared. The snow had been cleared from the centerline of M1 but had been pushed into a three to four foot drift on the taxiway; not off the taxiway. With the light snow covering and the darkening conditions; the snow drift was not visible from the cockpit.
While taxiing to the gate on darkening; snow covered and slippery MCI taxiways the flight crew of a B737NG failed to note that plowed snow was built up three or four feet on the taxiway itself. The right main gear and engine impacted the snow drift and they shut down the jet and removed the passengers by bus.