Narrative:

During pushback at mco the aircraft was pushed off of the side of the ramp onto a paved apron. In doing so while still hooked to the tug the right inboard main tire contacted and broke a blue light that marked the edge of the ramp. The aircraft was stopped and appropriate parties notified. I called dispatch and maintenance control as well as mco operations with a request to call local maintenance. ATC was also called. Before the aircraft was moved pictures were taken before we were pulled back to gate. During the trip back to the gate and after a mechanic inspected the tire and aircraft certifying it was airworthy by signing off the logbook. We departed shortly thereafter without further incident.the weather was not a factor except it was still very dark and we were using a borrowed gate. Since it was an unfamiliar gate I have no knowledge of the ground crew's familiarity with that particular ramp. Since it happened during the pushback phase we could not see what was happening behind us and since both pilots were not familiar with that gate had no experience to fall back on to help prevent what happened.two thoughts come to mind. Experience and attention to detail are absolutely essential here particularly when dealing with unfamiliar surroundings. There seems to be an incredible amount of pressure exerted on all employee groups involved in operations due to the prevalence of the government requirement to publish on time statistics. If that continues to be the driving force it will be increasingly difficult to prevent situations such as this.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A321 flight crew reported striking a taxiway edge light during pushback.

Narrative: During pushback at MCO the aircraft was pushed off of the side of the ramp onto a paved apron. In doing so while still hooked to the tug the right inboard main tire contacted and broke a blue light that marked the edge of the ramp. The aircraft was stopped and appropriate parties notified. I called Dispatch and Maintenance Control as well as MCO Operations with a request to call local maintenance. ATC was also called. Before the aircraft was moved pictures were taken before we were pulled back to gate. During the trip back to the gate and after a Mechanic inspected the tire and aircraft certifying it was airworthy by signing off the logbook. We departed shortly thereafter without further incident.The weather was not a factor except it was still very dark and we were using a borrowed gate. Since it was an unfamiliar gate I have no knowledge of the ground crew's familiarity with that particular ramp. Since it happened during the pushback phase we could not see what was happening behind us and since both pilots were not familiar with that gate had no experience to fall back on to help prevent what happened.Two thoughts come to mind. Experience and attention to detail are absolutely essential here particularly when dealing with unfamiliar surroundings. There seems to be an incredible amount of pressure exerted on all employee groups involved in operations due to the prevalence of the government requirement to publish on time statistics. If that continues to be the driving force it will be increasingly difficult to prevent situations such as this.

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.