Narrative:

I had just sat down to look at flight planning in the cockpit. The first officer was doing the preflight with 15 minutes to push. My head was down in the efb and the a F/a yelled up front; 'the jetbridge is running away!' I looked to the left and saw that the jetbridge was moving towards the aircraft. I got up to see if I could go through the door and the F/a was talking about trying to stop it with his arm. I told him to pull his arm out and saw the door was no longer usable. I quickly jumped up front and radioed for ops/maintenance to come down. The jetway stopped; resting on the captain's side forward door. This happened in 15 to 30 seconds. After having the passengers remain seated and remaining boarding passengers go back up to the terminal; we started to assess the situation and maintenance/ground ops said that the aircraft may have actually rolled back (the passengers and rest of the crew remained adamant against this assessment as no one felt it roll). The parking brake had not been set yet per procedure and I did not feel it moving either; but know it very well could have if the aircraft was unchocked (there was no note for [that] gate to keep the brakes set). The passengers were secured and after inspecting the slide and determining a safe plan; we decided to pull the plane forward and move the jet bridge. Maintenance inspected the aircraft and it was MEL'd. We continued uneventfully for the rest of the day.I think the brakes should remain set on all parking events with exceptions as needed. Remind personnel that procedures are there to help and not to burden them. Continue to help them to prioritize the important stuff.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 flight crew reported contact with the jet bridge occurred during boarding possibly due to company policy that does not call for brakes set until later in the preflight.

Narrative: I had just sat down to look at flight planning in the cockpit. The F/O was doing the preflight with 15 minutes to push. My head was down in the EFB and the A F/A yelled up front; 'The jetbridge is running away!' I looked to the left and saw that the jetbridge was moving towards the aircraft. I got up to see if I could go through the door and the F/A was talking about trying to stop it with his arm. I told him to pull his arm out and saw the door was no longer usable. I quickly jumped up front and radioed for Ops/Maintenance to come down. The jetway stopped; resting on the Captain's side forward door. This happened in 15 to 30 seconds. After having the passengers remain seated and remaining boarding passengers go back up to the terminal; we started to assess the situation and Maintenance/Ground Ops said that the aircraft may have actually rolled back (the passengers and rest of the crew remained adamant against this assessment as no one felt it roll). The parking brake had not been set yet per procedure and I did not feel it moving either; but know it very well could have if the aircraft was unchocked (there was no note for [that] gate to keep the brakes set). The passengers were secured and after inspecting the slide and determining a safe plan; we decided to pull the plane forward and move the jet bridge. Maintenance inspected the aircraft and it was MEL'd. We continued uneventfully for the rest of the day.I think the brakes should remain set on all parking events with exceptions as needed. Remind personnel that procedures are there to help and not to burden them. Continue to help them to prioritize the important stuff.

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.