Narrative:

After landing at mia; we turned left off the runway and came to a complete stop on taxiway Y completely clear of the runway. While stopped; I told my first officer to contact ramp on comm 2 while I contacted ground control on comm 1. We were cleared to our open gate by ramp control and informed ground. They responded; 'taxi via P and hh hold short of north; your gate is occupied.' we did not immediately respond because we were not sure if the communication was for us or if the ground controller was confused.we contacted ramp control again real quick and they repeated that we were cleared to approach for an open gate. We again informed ground control that our gate was an open gate and we had instructions to enter spot xx. Again; the ground controller came back with the same exact instructions as last time; 'taxi via P and hh hold short of north; your gate is occupied.'at this time; we began moving forward onto taxiway P with our taxi light on. I could see our gate and that it was in fact not occupied; so we queried ground one more time with no response. At which time we began proceeding onto taxiway P to comply with ground instructions. The nose section of our aircraft was on taxiway P when the first officer called out that there was an A330 taxiing on P in our direction. I simultaneously saw the other aircraft and came to a dead stop. The aircraft continued taxiing; so I immediately shouted over ground control frequency; '[A330] stop! [A330] stop!' as they appeared that they might hit us.the aircraft then came to a stop with their left wing tip to the right and above our aircraft. After several moments of surveying the situation ground control came on and inquired if we could make a left turn back on to taxiway Q via Y. It was very tight with the median but I was able to turn onto Q. After further assessment and the sight picture of an aircraft behind the aircraft it was determined that the wing tip would pass over the top of us; however this was too close for comfort for me and I made the decision to move completely out of the way before proceeding. We came to a complete stop on taxiway Q and ground control instructed the A330 to continue on P.ground control then informed us that he concurred that our gate was opened and cleared us to taxi to the ramp via jj; cut across the pad to Y1 to enter the ramp. We continued without any incident. In summary; this was a very close call but did not result in a collision.confusion between us; ground control; and the ramp control instructions was what initially caused this occurrence. It was further exacerbated by our distraction with trying to proceed to the ramp instead of to the holding pad.although we used proper technique of clearing both directions before taxiing; I should not have moved the aircraft at all before making sure our path was completely clear. It seems the aircraft however should have been instructed to give way to us as we had clearance onto taxiway P. The other aircraft also could have been more vigilant as they appeared to have plenty of time and clear view to see us. We had entered taxiway P well before they approached our position.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reported a ground conflict event in MIA airport due to confusion with ground and ramp control instructions.

Narrative: After landing at MIA; we turned left off the runway and came to a complete stop on Taxiway Y completely clear of the runway. While stopped; I told my First Officer to contact ramp on COMM 2 while I contacted ground control on COMM 1. We were cleared to our open gate by ramp control and informed ground. They responded; 'Taxi via P and HH hold short of N; your gate is occupied.' We did not immediately respond because we were not sure if the communication was for us or if the ground controller was confused.We contacted ramp control again real quick and they repeated that we were cleared to approach for an open gate. We again informed ground control that our gate was an open gate and we had instructions to enter spot XX. Again; the ground controller came back with the same exact instructions as last time; 'Taxi via P and HH hold short of N; your gate is occupied.'At this time; we began moving forward onto Taxiway P with our taxi light on. I could see our gate and that it was in fact not occupied; so we queried ground one more time with no response. At which time we began proceeding onto Taxiway P to comply with ground instructions. The nose section of our aircraft was on Taxiway P when the First Officer called out that there was an A330 taxiing on P in our direction. I simultaneously saw the other aircraft and came to a dead stop. The aircraft continued taxiing; so I immediately shouted over ground control frequency; '[A330] stop! [A330] stop!' as they appeared that they might hit us.The aircraft then came to a stop with their left wing tip to the right and above our aircraft. After several moments of surveying the situation ground control came on and inquired if we could make a left turn back on to Taxiway Q via Y. It was very tight with the median but I was able to turn onto Q. After further assessment and the sight picture of an aircraft behind the aircraft it was determined that the wing tip would pass over the top of us; however this was too close for comfort for me and I made the decision to move completely out of the way before proceeding. We came to a complete stop on Taxiway Q and ground control instructed the A330 to continue on P.Ground control then informed us that he concurred that our gate was opened and cleared us to taxi to the ramp via JJ; cut across the pad to Y1 to enter the ramp. We continued without any incident. In summary; this was a very close call but did not result in a collision.Confusion between us; ground control; and the ramp control instructions was what initially caused this occurrence. It was further exacerbated by our distraction with trying to proceed to the ramp instead of to the holding pad.Although we used proper technique of clearing both directions before taxiing; I should not have moved the aircraft at all before making sure our path was completely clear. It seems the aircraft however should have been instructed to give way to us as we had clearance onto Taxiway P. The other aircraft also could have been more vigilant as they appeared to have plenty of time and clear view to see us. We had entered Taxiway P well before they approached our position.

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.