Narrative:

This near incident occurred during pushback late in the night in lga. My first officer called ramp control for pushback. The ramp controller gave us a confusing instruction to 'push to 23 alpha 24 alpha and call ground for taxi.' hearing that clearance I asked my first officer to have the controller clarify which spot we were cleared to push to. We were then told to push to 24 on alpha. My first officer repeated the instruction that we were 'cleared to push to 24 alpha.' the push crew inquired which direction we wanted to push the nose so we made another inquiry to ramp; who then informed us that it was at our discretion. I am not intimately aware of which spots are controlled by ground or ramp during any given hour and since this was very late at night the instruction to push onto alpha raised no concern to us. During the pushback the tug driver locked his brakes at the 'top of the T'; still within the ramp area; bringing the aircraft to an abrupt stop; informing us that we were some feet away from clipping the tail of a passing crj. During this time the ramp controller was apparently attempting to stop our push; but her calls were unintelligible as she was saying multiple combinations of numbers in an apparent attempt to call our correct flight number. By the time she uttered our flight number and told us to stop; we had already been stopped by the tug driver. I asked the tug driver if any damage to any aircraft or personnel had occurred and he informed us that no damage of any kind occurred other than a broken shear pin on the tow bar. I took control of the aircraft again by setting the brakes while the push crew went searching for a new tow bar. At this time ramp control asked us if we knew why ground would've taxied the crj behind us and if we had called ground for the push. I informed her; that as we understood; her instruction to us was that we were only to call ground upon the need to taxi and that we hadn't called them for the push because she had cleared us for the push. Ramp then decided that if we could make a 180 deg turn under our own power that they would like us to proceed with the taxi; as a tow bar might have taken a while to find. Due to the fact that our aircraft had yet to exit the ramp controlled area; we contacted ground; they asked us our position and after replying they cleared us for the turn and gave further taxi instructions for departure and the flight completed without incident. My crew and I feel that using proper phraseology on ramp control's part by not 'clearing us to push' was a factor and even if the call had been misinterpreted; my first officer's read back of those instructions should have been corrected by the ramp controller and restated for clarity.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain reported his Tug Driver stopped abruptly during pushback to avoid a collision. The flight crew had contacted Ramp for the push; but not Ground.

Narrative: This near incident occurred during pushback late in the night in LGA. My FO called ramp control for pushback. The ramp controller gave us a confusing instruction to 'push to 23 alpha 24 alpha and call ground for taxi.' Hearing that clearance I asked my FO to have the controller clarify which spot we were cleared to push to. We were then told to push to 24 on alpha. My FO repeated the instruction that we were 'cleared to push to 24 alpha.' The push crew inquired which direction we wanted to push the nose so we made another inquiry to ramp; who then informed us that it was at our discretion. I am not intimately aware of which spots are controlled by ground or ramp during any given hour and since this was very late at night the instruction to push onto alpha raised no concern to us. During the pushback the tug driver locked his brakes at the 'top of the T'; still within the ramp area; bringing the aircraft to an abrupt stop; informing us that we were some feet away from clipping the tail of a passing CRJ. During this time the ramp controller was apparently attempting to stop our push; but her calls were unintelligible as she was saying multiple combinations of numbers in an apparent attempt to call our correct flight number. By the time she uttered our flight number and told us to stop; we had already been stopped by the tug driver. I asked the tug driver if any damage to any aircraft or personnel had occurred and he informed us that no damage of any kind occurred other than a broken shear pin on the tow bar. I took control of the aircraft again by setting the brakes while the push crew went searching for a new tow bar. At this time ramp control asked us if we knew why ground would've taxied the CRJ behind us and if we had called ground for the push. I informed her; that as we understood; her instruction to us was that we were only to call ground upon the need to taxi and that we hadn't called them for the push because she had cleared us for the push. Ramp then decided that if we could make a 180 deg turn under our own power that they would like us to proceed with the taxi; as a tow bar might have taken a while to find. Due to the fact that our aircraft had yet to exit the ramp controlled area; we contacted ground; they asked us our position and after replying they cleared us for the turn and gave further taxi instructions for departure and the flight completed without incident. My crew and I feel that using proper phraseology on ramp control's part by not 'clearing us to push' was a factor and even if the call had been misinterpreted; my FO's read back of those instructions should have been corrected by the ramp controller and restated for clarity.

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.