Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; General Maintenance Action
Airport; Aircraft; Human Factors; Weather
ORD Runway 10C was reporting breaking action fair; with winds 350@13. I touched down on speed and in the touchdown zone. I applied full braking and was slowly decelerating. The aircraft weather vaned approximately 20 degrees into the wind; I applied opposite rudder and the aircraft skidded the opposite direction. At this time a rudder SYS 1-2 INOP displayed on the EICAS. I corrected the aircraft to have the nose into the wind; and was still drifting slightly towards the edge of the runway; so I released both brakes and regained directional control and applied full braking. After the second application of the brakes the aircraft started decelerating quickly; and we exited the runway on a high speed without further event. I called braking action poor. I had run performance for this runway as low; and the aircraft stopped in that approximate distance. After getting to the gate I wrote up the aircraft and was trying to call Dispatch and Maintenance when the Director of Safety called me about another event; and I reported the conditions on [Runway] 10C to him. I then called Maintenance; and finally my Chief Pilot to inform them of the conditions in ORD. I believe they suspended operations until the runways were cleaned and the airport was turned around; due to the small tailwind (3 KTS). There were aircraft departing between arrivals on [Runway] 10C and I believe that where my aircraft began to turn into the wind is where the departing aircraft were shedding their anti-ice fluids. The runway was more contaminated causing the aircraft to be more susceptible to turning into the wind. I didn't then nor do I now believe now that I did anything wrong. I understand that the point of reporting is to track safety related issues; but I felt the event had gained enough traction through my other conversations (with chief pilots); but after I received a phone call from the FAA regarding this event I felt it was prudent to file a report. Currently we have max recommended crosswind components for different contaminations; In this case it was compacted snow (25 KTS) or water slush (20 KTS); but we don't have anything for braking actions. Our performance in ACARS has setting for good medium and low which one can interpolate to line up with good fair and poor. I had been given MU for that runway but by the time I had gotten to the runway it had been 30 minutes or more; and everyone was reporting the braking action as fair. But I was never told by what aircraft type. In major snow events our pilot group needs to do a better job of getting information to Dispatch about the runway conditions so that we can forward it to other aircraft following us.
EMB145 captain reports landing on Runway 10C at ORD contaminated with compacted snow with a reported braking action of fair. Full braking is applied on touch down and directional control becomes difficult with braking action nil. With the aircraft drifting toward the runway edge the brakes are released; directional control is regained and brakes reapplied with good results. De-ice fluid shed by departing aircraft was thought to have been a factor in this incident.