Narrative:

At pushback time; the tug driver reported they were ready for pushback. I responded; 'standby'. We completed the before pushback checklist; called for and received clearance to push. I released the parking brake and said to the tug driver; 'cockpit to ground; brakes released; cleared to push; tail north.' no response. I tried again; no response. Then began the 'anyone there'; 'hello below' calls. I even had the first officer give them a shout. No response. This went on for a couple of minutes.at that point; every captain in this position is faced with a dilemma; set the parking brake and potentially brake the airplane if the tug tries to push us back then; or leave the brake released and potentially roll or move slightly; causing injury or damage. I chose to set the brake. We called ramp; informed them that our tug driver was not responding; and cancelled our pushback request.a few minutes later the tug driver came back on and said he was ready to go. I very clearly and concisely explained how incredibly dangerous his actions were. He reported that he just got there from a nearby gate; they had called him from there. This was a different tug driver. I asked where the other guy went and he said he didn't know. I asked if it was shift change time; and he said it was a little while ago. So we surmised that the tug driver simply walked away while we were getting our pushback clearance. He said nothing to us; just left after reporting that he was ready to go. We were essentially left [unattended] and with the brakes released. What if we had slowly rolled at a pace somewhat like a slow push? We had no way of knowing what was going on at that point.this is the first time I've seen this in person. I've read some reports about it; but it's still unnerving beyond belief when it comes to being in this situation.on the scale of great ideas and really scary bad ones; this one was off the chart insane.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain at ORD reported telling his pushback crew to standby while pushback clearance was obtained. The ground crew left without talking which left the aircraft with brakes off and tug status unknown.

Narrative: At pushback time; the tug driver reported they were ready for pushback. I responded; 'Standby'. We completed the before pushback checklist; called for and received clearance to push. I released the parking brake and said to the tug driver; 'cockpit to ground; brakes released; cleared to push; tail north.' No response. I tried again; no response. Then began the 'anyone there'; 'hello below' calls. I even had the First Officer give them a shout. No response. This went on for a couple of minutes.At that point; every Captain in this position is faced with a dilemma; set the parking brake and potentially brake the airplane if the tug tries to push us back then; or leave the brake released and potentially roll or move slightly; causing injury or damage. I chose to set the brake. We called ramp; informed them that our tug driver was not responding; and cancelled our pushback request.A few minutes later the tug driver came back on and said he was ready to go. I very clearly and concisely explained how incredibly dangerous his actions were. He reported that he just got there from a nearby gate; they had called him from there. This was a different tug driver. I asked where the other guy went and he said he didn't know. I asked if it was shift change time; and he said it was a little while ago. So we surmised that the tug driver simply walked away while we were getting our pushback clearance. He said nothing to us; just left after reporting that he was ready to go. We were essentially left [unattended] and with the brakes released. What if we had slowly rolled at a pace somewhat like a slow push? We had no way of knowing what was going on at that point.This is the first time I've seen this in person. I've read some reports about it; but it's still unnerving beyond belief when it comes to being in this situation.On the scale of great ideas and really scary bad ones; this one was off the chart insane.

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.