Narrative:

While on rollout on runway 09 at mia; I decided to taxi to the end since it was late and we had been assigned the unusual parking on the south side. Tower had cleared us to taxi to the end and make a left turn to taxiway Q8 and taxi to parking. I had my airport diagram out; and it appears that the taxiway is quite wide according to the airport page. I saw blue lights off my left at a 90 degree angle so I started my turn off the runway. As I turned; I saw lights off my front parallel the runway edge and realized that I was departing the runway onto concrete but not on to taxiway Q8. Immediately I turned back on to the runway and taxied down another 100-150 ft and turned off the runway on taxiway Q8 proper. Since there was a possibility that I had come in contact with a blue taxi light; we requested a phone number for tower. Once parked at the gate; I called and talked to mia tower and told them that I may have run over a taxi light and to please have one of their ground vehicles check the area. The first officer and I did an extensive post flight of all nose and main tires with no damage noted. The tower representative and his ground observer both agreed that the Q8 area is not very well marked. Since we almost never roll to the end of runway 09 because of our gate locations; this was my first time and it was at night (XA53 local). The airport diagram does not show that the actual Q8 taxiway is very small width wise and can set up crews for an early turnoff repeating the same scenario I experienced. I will be more vigilant in the future; especially when taxiing in an unfamiliar area.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew report confusion after a night landing on Runway 27 at MIA with instructions to exit at Taxiway Q8. An early turn caused damage to taxiway lights.

Narrative: While on rollout on Runway 09 at MIA; I decided to taxi to the end since it was late and we had been assigned the unusual parking on the south side. Tower had cleared us to taxi to the end and make a left turn to Taxiway Q8 and taxi to parking. I had my airport diagram out; and it appears that the taxiway is quite wide according to the airport page. I saw blue lights off my left at a 90 degree angle so I started my turn off the runway. As I turned; I saw lights off my front parallel the runway edge and realized that I was departing the runway onto concrete but not on to Taxiway Q8. Immediately I turned back on to the runway and taxied down another 100-150 FT and turned off the runway on Taxiway Q8 proper. Since there was a possibility that I had come in contact with a blue taxi light; we requested a phone number for Tower. Once parked at the gate; I called and talked to MIA Tower and told them that I may have run over a taxi light and to please have one of their ground vehicles check the area. The First Officer and I did an extensive post flight of all nose and main tires with no damage noted. The Tower representative and his ground observer both agreed that the Q8 area is not very well marked. Since we almost never roll to the end of Runway 09 because of our gate locations; this was my first time and it was at night (XA53 local). The airport diagram does not show that the actual Q8 Taxiway is very small width wise and can set up crews for an early turnoff repeating the same scenario I experienced. I will be more vigilant in the future; especially when taxiing in an unfamiliar area.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.