Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 160; Flight Crew Total 1980; Flight Crew Type 920
Human-Machine Interface; Time Pressure
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Excursion Taxiway; Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
General Maintenance Action; General Evacuated
Aircraft
The copilot was taxiing to the runway from the commuter air terminal. Upon reaching a right hand turn to follow the taxiway and attempting to slow the aircraft; the copilot says to me; 'I have no brakes.' I immediately reached for the brake pedals and found the left pedal all the way to the floor. We were then in a sharp right hand turn at a low speed. Attempting to pump up the hydraulic brakes with no success; I put the throttle into the reverse position to stop the aircraft. The aircraft proceeded to the right a short distance; partially off of the taxiway into a patch of dirt/grass and came to a stop. The left brake pedal was still fully depressed and non-responsive. I contacted the Tower and explained our situation. At that point; I shut down the engine and debriefed the passengers. The copilot deplaned to place the tail stand and chocks. Airport Operations were on the scene immediately to secure the area. The passengers were then deplaned and taken by foot back to the commuter terminal; approximately 200 yards away. No taxi lights were hit and the airplane was not damaged. Maintenance was called and arrived shortly to tow the aircraft back to the terminal.This aircraft has a documented history of braking issues with maintenance log revealing two prior write ups in the last week for the left brake. Corrective actions were preformed with replacing the master cylinder and entire brake lines. This aircraft was taxied and flow one prior leg today by myself with no braking issues noticed.
I also made a visual inspection of the front of the aircraft and prop and discovered that no damage had been caused by our incursion on to the grass area.
When their brakes failed during a turn while taxiing for takeoff the flight crew of a CE-208 were unable to prevent an excursion off the taxiway. The aircraft had a history of left brake srite-ups in the recent past.