Narrative:

As the jet bridge was pulled away; I advised flight deck we were ready to push and ready for nose wheel capture. However; as my ground crew member attempted to capture nose wheel; we notice the lektro was not pulling the aircraft. I made a few attempt to reset the lektro. Nevertheless; it seem to have lost power. And when I looked at the charge level; it was below 50 percent. At that time; I requested that we immediately replace the push lektro with another. The plane side supervisor sternly ordered that I go ahead and request flight deck to release brakes (assuming so he can get his on time departure). I first declined citing a serious safety concern when we need to swap lektro and/or push tractor. He gave me a direct order as well as the pushback crew to remain steadfast and then told me to contact flight deck for brake release. Since I was given a direct order; I called flight deck and asked for brake release and that we were 'ready for push.' once captain released brakes; I had to call back flight deck a moment later and basically lie that there is a malfunction of the pushback lektro; further; we need to replace lektro and asked flight deck to reset brakes. I was the pushback person and feel in no way did I feel comfortable whatsoever performing what is clearly a safety concern when asking the captain to release brakes without properly chocking and securing the aircraft. Secondly; the supervisor ordered me to falsify a situation that was not truthful. For that; I feel I needed to file this [report] as this particular supervisor has developed a pattern of asking for early brake release; with or without regard to any safety concern.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp employee reported that when the pushback tractor became inoperative; the Supervisor ordered the brakes released to record an on-time departure.

Narrative: As the jet bridge was pulled away; I advised flight deck we were ready to push and ready for nose wheel capture. However; as my ground crew member attempted to capture nose wheel; we notice the Lektro was not pulling the aircraft. I made a few attempt to reset the Lektro. Nevertheless; it seem to have lost power. And when I looked at the charge level; it was below 50 percent. At that time; I requested that we immediately replace the push Lektro with another. The plane side supervisor sternly ordered that I go ahead and request flight deck to release brakes (assuming so he can get his on time departure). I first declined citing a serious safety concern when we need to swap Lektro and/or push tractor. He gave me a direct order as well as the pushback crew to remain steadfast and then told me to contact flight deck for brake release. Since I was given a direct order; I called flight deck and asked for brake release and that we were 'ready for push.' Once captain released brakes; I had to call back flight deck a moment later and basically lie that there is a malfunction of the pushback Lektro; further; we need to replace Lektro and asked flight deck to reset brakes. I was the pushback person and feel in no way did I feel comfortable whatsoever performing what is clearly a safety concern when asking the captain to release brakes without properly chocking and securing the aircraft. Secondly; the supervisor ordered me to falsify a situation that was not truthful. For that; I feel I needed to file this [report] as this particular supervisor has developed a pattern of asking for early brake release; with or without regard to any safety concern.

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.