Air carrier captain reported being unable to see out cockpit window at night during taxi into gate d...

Narrative:

We taxied into a very tight gate; a tow in. It was night. As we approached the pushback tug; we were blinded by the very bright led headlights. All night vision was gone; [we were] in a tight area. We stopped and called ops to have them tell the folks to turn off lights. They said lights do not turn off. We turned on all of our external lights to taxi in. The assistant station manager came up and we talked about it. The captain who was taking over the aircraft heard us; and also spoke of how it blinds us when the ramp is wet and the glare. We were informed that all company ground equipment have the lights hard-wired to on if the equipment is running. As everything is going to be extremely bright leds; they need to be off. Imagine trying to see the ground crew; equipment; safety lines and all other threats while looking into led headlights. The ground equipment; at least the pushbacks; should have a way to turn off lights or should be turned off at all times as we approach it!

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported being unable to see out cockpit window at night during taxi into gate due to ground equipment headlights shining into cockpit.

Narrative: We taxied into a very tight gate; a tow in. It was night. As we approached the pushback tug; we were blinded by the very bright LED headlights. All night vision was gone; [we were] in a tight area. We stopped and called Ops to have them tell the folks to turn off lights. They said lights do not turn off. We turned on all of our external lights to taxi in. The Assistant Station Manager came up and we talked about it. The Captain who was taking over the aircraft heard us; and also spoke of how it blinds us when the ramp is wet and the glare. We were informed that all Company ground equipment have the lights hard-wired to ON if the equipment is running. As everything is going to be extremely bright LEDs; they need to be OFF. Imagine trying to see the Ground Crew; equipment; Safety lines and all other threats while looking into LED headlights. The ground equipment; at least the pushbacks; should have a way to turn off lights or should be turned OFF at all times as we approach it!

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.

Attributes
ACN	1620659
Time
Date	201902
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	DCA.Airport
State Reference	DC
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 354
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Air carrier captain reported being unable to see out cockpit window at night during taxi into gate due to ground equipment headlights shining into cockpit.