Narrative:

We were pushing back from [the] gate. There were wide bodies at [adjacent] gates; there was also a line of aircraft in a line behind us along the fence. Ramp tower gave us cleared us to push I relayed to the tug driver breaks release clear to push. And he responded. We started our push back tail first down the alleyway. The crew and I started to wonder what his plan was to get us turned around so I asked the tug how he was going to get us turned around with very little room to do so. The tug driver never responded after repeated calls. He started to turn us around abeam [the] vacant [gate] thinking he was going to pull us into that gate and then push us back tail towards [our departure gate] but he stopped and didn't move for a few min's so again I tried to call him with no response. Some place in there ramp asked that we pull forward so the plane could push. I asked the first officer to call ramp to get someone out here because I have no com with the tug driver. The first officer (first officer) did notice the tug was sitting about 70 degrees off the right side. As we sat there a few we talked about that the tug was trying to do; of a sudden the tug was gone and no one could see it. I did have my feet on the pedals but not applying brakes at that time finally all of us in the flight deck thought we where did he go then realized we had no tug hooked up and the breaks are not set so I set the brakes continuing to contact the tug driver. I finally saw that he moved the tow bar and tug to the right side and about that point he came on and said he was going to pull us again. I told him what have you been doing; I have tried a number of times to contact you and he said his cord wasn't long enough to reach as he was pulling us. I told him to get one before he started again at that time he turned the tug around so he drove backwards and not pulling us so the cord would reach. This could have ended badly when he disconnected and no break was set and through the whole push back besides at the gate to start no com with the tug driver and no way to have him stop if need be.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B787 Crew reported pushback with no communication with push crew for several minutes due to the headset cord not being long enough.

Narrative: We were pushing back from [the] gate. There were wide bodies at [adjacent] gates; there was also a line of aircraft in a line behind us along the fence. Ramp tower gave us cleared us to push I relayed to the tug driver breaks release clear to push. And he responded. We started our push back tail first down the alleyway. The crew and I started to wonder what his plan was to get us turned around so I asked the tug how he was going to get us turned around with very little room to do so. The tug driver never responded after repeated calls. He started to turn us around abeam [the] vacant [gate] thinking he was going to pull us into that gate and then push us back tail towards [our departure gate] but he stopped and didn't move for a few min's so again I tried to call him with no response. Some place in there Ramp asked that we pull forward so the plane could push. I asked the First officer to call ramp to get someone out here because I have no com with the tug driver. The First Officer (FO) did notice the tug was sitting about 70 degrees off the right side. As we sat there a few we talked about that the tug was trying to do; of a sudden the tug was gone and no one could see it. I did have my feet on the pedals but not applying brakes at that time finally all of us in the flight deck thought we where did he go then realized we had no tug hooked up and the breaks are not set so I set the brakes continuing to contact the tug driver. I finally saw that he moved the tow bar and tug to the right side and about that point he came on and said he was going to pull us again. I told him what have you been doing; I have tried a number of times to contact you and he said his cord wasn't long enough to reach as he was pulling us. I told him to get one before he started again at that time he turned the tug around so he drove backwards and not pulling us so the cord would reach. This could have ended badly when he disconnected and no break was set and through the whole push back besides at the gate to start no com with the tug driver and no way to have him stop if need be.

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.