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Ground personnel and a captain of a B737 reported that the tow bar got disconnected without the brakes being set.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1421326 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201702 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Taxi |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Ramp |
| Person 2 | |
| Function | Vehicle Driver Ramp |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown |
Narrative:
After normal push off [the] gate into the alley; the captain advised the tow tractor driver that he had been instructed by the tower to have the ramp crew tow the aircraft forward to clear the area behind the aircraft for another aircraft to be pushed off of the gate. The tractor driver gave a single hand up; fist closed followed by pointing over his head to indicate that he was going to move the aircraft forward. The wing-walkers misinterpreted this signal to be a simple brakes locked signal and disconnected the tow bar.after disconnecting; the tow driver signaled again to the wing-walker that they needed to tow the aircraft forward so he went to hook the tow bar back to the aircraft but it began to roll forward.the wing walker immediately stopped and moved away from the aircraft with the tow bar while the tractor driver put the tow tractor in reverse and backed away from the approaching aircraft while telling the cockpit via the head set to 'set brakes'. The tractor driver repeated the instruction to set brakes at least two more times before he received a response from the cockpit asking if there was a 'break-away'. The tractor driver responded yes and the aircraft brakes were set.the aircraft departed without further incident. There was no damage to the aircraft or any ground equipment and no injury to any of the crew working the flight.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Ground personnel and a Captain of a B737 reported that the tow bar got disconnected without the brakes being set.
Narrative: After normal push off [the] gate into the alley; the captain advised the tow tractor driver that he had been instructed by the tower to have the ramp crew tow the aircraft forward to clear the area behind the aircraft for another aircraft to be pushed off of the gate. The tractor driver gave a single hand up; fist closed followed by pointing over his head to indicate that he was going to move the aircraft forward. The wing-walkers misinterpreted this signal to be a simple brakes locked signal and disconnected the tow bar.After disconnecting; the tow driver signaled again to the wing-walker that they needed to tow the aircraft forward so he went to hook the tow bar back to the aircraft but it began to roll forward.The wing walker immediately stopped and moved away from the aircraft with the tow bar while the tractor driver put the tow tractor in reverse and backed away from the approaching aircraft while telling the cockpit via the head set to 'set brakes'. The tractor driver repeated the instruction to set brakes at least two more times before he received a response from the cockpit asking if there was a 'break-away'. The tractor driver responded yes and the aircraft brakes were set.The aircraft departed without further incident. There was no damage to the aircraft or any ground equipment and no injury to any of the crew working the flight.
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.