Narrative:

It was our 3rd leg of the morning; and we had just been battling weather holding for an hour and almost having to divert when we finally got cleared into ZZZ. Rains were heavy. We shot the ILS and landed. We exited M1 and were given the usual taxi instructions (M; M2; C; etc.) we turned right on M2 and soon there is a bend to the left (where excursion occurred.) it was raining and I was very cognizant of turning at a safe speed. About halfway into the turn using the tiller; the aircraft started to hydroplane straight instead of staying in the turn. I made adjustments to the tiller to try and regain traction; didn't respond. I then braked the aircraft; which didn't seem to stop us right away. The aircraft started to vibrate as if the nose wheels were sideways to the direction of the slide. Traction was finally caught and the aircraft came left back towards the centerline of the taxiway; in so doing I thought I felt that the right main gear had bumped something. We stopped the aircraft on the centerline and evaluated. The first officer (first officer) said she saw 4 warning messages appear and then disappear but didn't know what they said. We checked in with the flight attendants and made a PA. We decided not to move the aircraft further as we weren't sure if the aircraft had a malfunction or if the aircraft had sustained damage. We called operations and maintenance and requested a tug. When the tug and airport operations guys arrived; I asked them to check if we hit a taxi light; and they later confirmed that two appeared to be damaged. On the taxi in we wrote up that the nose wheel skidded and vibrated. I personally saw all the passengers as they got off and they seemed in good spirits and were complimenting us on a smooth landing (odd as that happened half an hour ago I thought.) apparently one man told a flight attendant and the gate agent that he had been hurt; but I know nothing further. I went down to inspect the aircraft with maintenance and the city personnel; and we could find no damage on first look. When I told the airport operations man what had happened; he explained to me that while in the turn; we likely came in contact with the centerline stripe on the taxiway which is painted with a substance embedded with glass beads to make it reflective. When wet this surface is highly slick. I believe this explains the initial slide/hydroplane; and the subsequent vibration we felt from the nose gear because once it was off the slick glass bead surface; it was still in a turn but now making contact with concrete which would have been much rougher. After finishing at the gate; the first officer and I went to the chief pilots office. [We] conferenced in [the duty manager] and we explained in detail the events. After; we went down to the operations area to talk to the maintenance guys. Since we had got confirmation 2 taxiway lights had been damaged; we wanted to make sure that was noted in the maintenance write up as well so that the aircraft would be thoroughly checked. Maintenance called me half hour later and said aircraft checks good.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported a loss of steering traction during taxi that resulted in damage to taxi lights.

Narrative: It was our 3rd leg of the morning; and we had just been battling weather holding for an hour and almost having to divert when we finally got cleared into ZZZ. Rains were heavy. We shot the ILS and landed. We exited M1 and were given the usual taxi instructions (M; M2; C; etc.) We turned right on M2 and soon there is a bend to the left (where excursion occurred.) It was raining and I was very cognizant of turning at a safe speed. About halfway into the turn using the tiller; the aircraft started to hydroplane straight instead of staying in the turn. I made adjustments to the tiller to try and regain traction; didn't respond. I then braked the aircraft; which didn't seem to stop us right away. The aircraft started to vibrate as if the nose wheels were sideways to the direction of the slide. Traction was finally caught and the aircraft came left back towards the centerline of the taxiway; in so doing I thought I felt that the right main gear had bumped something. We stopped the aircraft on the centerline and evaluated. The First Officer (FO) said she saw 4 warning messages appear and then disappear but didn't know what they said. We checked in with the flight attendants and made a PA. We decided not to move the aircraft further as we weren't sure if the aircraft had a malfunction or if the aircraft had sustained damage. We called operations and maintenance and requested a tug. When the tug and Airport Operations guys arrived; I asked them to check if we hit a taxi light; and they later confirmed that two appeared to be damaged. On the taxi in we wrote up that the nose wheel skidded and vibrated. I personally saw all the passengers as they got off and they seemed in good spirits and were complimenting us on a smooth landing (odd as that happened half an hour ago I thought.) Apparently one man told a Flight Attendant and the Gate Agent that he had been hurt; but I know nothing further. I went down to inspect the aircraft with maintenance and the City personnel; and we could find no damage on first look. When I told the Airport Operations man what had happened; he explained to me that while in the turn; we likely came in contact with the centerline stripe on the taxiway which is painted with a substance embedded with glass beads to make it reflective. When wet this surface is highly slick. I believe this explains the initial slide/hydroplane; and the subsequent vibration we felt from the nose gear because once it was off the slick glass bead surface; it was still in a turn but now making contact with concrete which would have been much rougher. After finishing at the gate; the FO and I went to the Chief Pilots office. [We] conferenced in [the duty manager] and we explained in detail the events. After; we went down to the operations area to talk to the maintenance guys. Since we had got confirmation 2 taxiway lights had been damaged; we wanted to make sure that was noted in the maintenance write up as well so that the aircraft would be thoroughly checked. Maintenance called me half hour later and said aircraft checks good.

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.