Narrative:

We were planning on departing [runway with a] 10 knot headwind on the ATIS. At the gate we are given a reroute that included a SID that we could not do as it took us [east] and we were heading south. It took about 30 minutes to convince ATC that we could not do that SID and needed our original departure. When we finally did push back ATC gave us instructions to taxi to [a newly assigned runway]. We were ok with that due to the headwind situation.by the time we got over to [the newly assigned runway]; things had apparently changed. Ground asked if we could take an intersection departure. We said we will check but what are the winds? They said 080/05 now a tailwind. We pretty much knew we would not take an intersection departure now but we needed to check to see if we could even use [this runway] at full length. I told ground this and he said hold your position. We did and we were just barely passed intersection D8 at the time. The nose of the aircraft was just past D8. Then ground wanted to get us out of the way while we figured out if we could use [the runway] and they gave us instructions to 'take the next right and make two right turns and hold short of D9 on delta. So we taxied forward and took the 'next right' which to us was D7. Just as we made the right turn we realized we should not be in the area that ATC had given us a clearance to do. It was too late though as we had to make the turn. We did and then we stopped. ATC maybe had thought that we could make the right turn back at D8 which is why they gave those instructions. To them it made sense but to us it would have been impossible to turn at D8 when our nose was past the intersection but it would have been a very very aggressive maneuver to even try and not instinctive at all. Tower was right in front of us so we assumed they could see where we were very clearly. Our next right was D7; which is the intersection we turned right on.we asked ATC to get us wing walkers on each wing and they told the city ops escorts that were escorting the airbus to check out our wing distances. They are very experienced at doing this task so we felt comfortable with taxing out of this area. Additionally; the visual we had looked like it was a safe distance also. The wind then died down and we were able to get satisfactory take off data for [assigned runway] so we departed but used max power.ATC gave us a faulty and ambiguous clearance by saying; 'take the next right and make two right turns and hold short of delta 9.' it should have been 'turn right at delta 8 and hold short of delta 9 on delta'. They did not know exactly where we were on echo in relation to delta 8 intersection. Turning on delta 8 was impossible for us and our next right was delta 7.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Boeing 787 flight crew reported turning onto the wrong taxiway because of unclear instructions from ATC. The taxiway had inadequate wingtip clearance.

Narrative: We were planning on departing [runway with a] 10 knot headwind on the ATIS. At the gate we are given a reroute that included a SID that we could not do as it took us [east] and we were heading south. It took about 30 minutes to convince ATC that we could not do that SID and needed our original departure. When we finally did push back ATC gave us instructions to taxi to [a newly assigned runway]. We were ok with that due to the headwind situation.By the time we got over to [the newly assigned runway]; things had apparently changed. Ground asked if we could take an intersection departure. We said we will check but what are the winds? They said 080/05 now a tailwind. We pretty much knew we would not take an intersection departure now but we needed to check to see if we could even use [this runway] at full length. I told ground this and he said hold your position. We did and we were just barely passed intersection D8 at the time. The nose of the aircraft was just past D8. Then ground wanted to get us out of the way while we figured out if we could use [the runway] and they gave us instructions to 'take the next right and make two right turns and hold short of D9 on Delta. So we taxied forward and took the 'next right' which to us was D7. Just as we made the right turn we realized we should not be in the area that ATC had given us a clearance to do. It was too late though as we had to make the turn. We did and then we stopped. ATC maybe had thought that we could make the right turn back at D8 which is why they gave those instructions. To them it made sense but to us it would have been impossible to turn at D8 when our nose was past the intersection but it would have been a very very aggressive maneuver to even try and not instinctive at all. Tower was right in front of us so we assumed they could see where we were very clearly. Our next right was D7; which is the intersection we turned right on.We asked ATC to get us wing walkers on each wing and they told the city ops escorts that were escorting the Airbus to check out our wing distances. They are very experienced at doing this task so we felt comfortable with taxing out of this area. Additionally; the visual we had looked like it was a safe distance also. The wind then died down and we were able to get satisfactory take off data for [assigned runway] so we departed but used max power.ATC gave us a faulty and ambiguous clearance by saying; 'take the next right and make two right turns and hold short of Delta 9.' It should have been 'turn right at Delta 8 and hold short of Delta 9 on delta'. They did not know exactly where we were on Echo in relation to Delta 8 intersection. Turning on Delta 8 was impossible for us and our next right was Delta 7.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.