Narrative:

I was positioned plane side just below the forward cargo pit door. This is where I witnessed [an employee] operating a belt loader; moving it closer to the aircraft to offload a couple of bags. There were two air start hoses connected to the aircraft which were on the ground directly in front of the belt loader [the employee] was operating. [The employee] started to raise the belt loader boom only to find out that there was 12 to 15 inch gap from end of belt loader bumpers to forward cargo door. [The employee] proceeded to drop the belt loader boom a few inches below the forward cargo pit door to lessen the gap between the belt loader and forward cargo pit door. [The employee] aware of the two air start hoses on the ground in front of the belt loader proceeded to move forward trying to avoid running over the hoses and causing damage.he did not know that the belt loader tires were chocked and stepped on the gas only to find out that the belt loader was not moving. Because the belt loader did not move when he stepped the gas pedal; he got a little bit aggravated and instead of checking why the belt loader wasn't moving; he intentionally stomped on the gas pedal so hard that the belt loader moved so fast it jumped the chocks and took off a good two and a half feet forward causing the belt loader boom to strike the aircraft with such force it shook the whole aircraft. The rubber bumpers on the boom tips bent forward exposing the boom metal which scraped the aircraft a good 12 inches until he stepped the brakes so hard it made a screeching sound causing everyone on the ramp to look over to see what just happened. Directly after the incident our supervisor; station manager; and mechanics arrived at plane side and handled everything.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp personnel reported the belt loader operator failed to realize that the loader's wheels were chocked and attempted to move it closer to the aircraft by stepping on the gas pedal hard enough to cause the loader to jump the chock; impacting and damaging the aircraft.

Narrative: I was positioned plane side just below the forward cargo pit door. This is where I witnessed [an employee] operating a belt loader; moving it closer to the aircraft to offload a couple of bags. There were two air start hoses connected to the aircraft which were on the ground directly in front of the belt loader [the employee] was operating. [The employee] started to raise the belt loader boom only to find out that there was 12 to 15 inch gap from end of belt loader bumpers to forward cargo door. [The employee] proceeded to drop the belt loader boom a few inches below the forward cargo pit door to lessen the gap between the belt loader and forward cargo pit door. [The employee] aware of the two air start hoses on the ground in front of the belt loader proceeded to move forward trying to avoid running over the hoses and causing damage.He did not know that the belt loader tires were chocked and stepped on the gas only to find out that the belt loader was not moving. Because the belt loader did not move when he stepped the gas pedal; he got a little bit aggravated and instead of checking why the belt loader wasn't moving; he intentionally stomped on the gas pedal so hard that the belt loader moved so fast it jumped the chocks and took off a good two and a half feet forward causing the belt loader boom to strike the aircraft with such force it shook the whole aircraft. The rubber bumpers on the boom tips bent forward exposing the boom metal which scraped the aircraft a good 12 inches until he stepped the brakes so hard it made a screeching sound causing everyone on the ramp to look over to see what just happened. Directly after the incident our supervisor; station manager; and mechanics arrived at plane side and handled everything.

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.