Narrative:

Ground crew lack of coordination. Lead marshaller was not properly monitoring his wing walkers; ground crew failed to notice there was a cart a few inches in the path of aircraft just prior to stopping point.upon approaching gate xx at ZZZ terminal; as per SOP and as customary; first officer (first officer) called 'right clear'; my response: 'left clear; brakes if you need them'. The state of the aircraft was single engine; idle power slow crawl forward. The ground crew lead was indicating to move forward and slightly correcting for position of nose wheel. Very slowly approaching and being ready for smooth final stop of aircraft we felt a 'thud'. I immediately applied full brakes and all movement halted. The lead was still instructing us to keep moving forward; so I mentioned to the first officer 'they must have left a wheel chock in the way'. The ground crew lead continued to instruct us to move forward; we were short of the stop line. I started to gently apply power to try to move the aircraft as instructed. As engine was revving up the lead instructed urgently to stop. The aircraft wasn't moving. After parking aircraft I realized that the 'thud' we felt before had been the aircraft wingtip striking a parked start cart. The ground crew and or wing walker hadn't noticed such intrusion in the box. From our vantage point in the cockpit; and given the relative distance of the aircraft/cart/box; it was impossible for us (flight crew) to know/see that the cart was a few inches inside the parking box and would present a danger to the aircraft. After said incident I proceeded to contact dispatch/maintenance and wrote up the aircraft log with the event.better training for wing walkers; more stringent requirements for ground personnel that have the responsibility for parking the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ 700 Captain reported that marshalling crew did not realize that a start cart was within the safety area at gate and marshalled aircraft into collision with it.

Narrative: Ground crew lack of coordination. Lead Marshaller was not properly monitoring his wing walkers; ground crew failed to notice there was a cart a few inches in the path of aircraft just prior to stopping point.Upon approaching Gate XX at ZZZ terminal; as per SOP and as customary; FO (First Officer) called 'Right clear'; my response: 'Left clear; brakes if you need them'. The state of the aircraft was single engine; idle power slow crawl forward. The Ground Crew Lead was indicating to move forward and slightly correcting for position of nose wheel. Very slowly approaching and being ready for smooth final stop of aircraft we felt a 'thud'. I immediately applied full brakes and all movement halted. The Lead was still instructing us to keep moving forward; so I mentioned to the FO 'they must have left a wheel chock in the way'. The Ground Crew Lead continued to instruct us to move forward; we were short of the stop line. I started to gently apply power to try to move the aircraft as instructed. As engine was revving up the Lead instructed urgently to stop. The aircraft wasn't moving. After parking aircraft I realized that the 'Thud' we felt before had been the aircraft wingtip striking a parked start cart. The ground crew and or Wing Walker hadn't noticed such intrusion in the box. From our vantage point in the cockpit; and given the relative distance of the aircraft/cart/box; it was impossible for us (flight crew) to know/see that the cart was a few inches inside the parking box and would present a danger to the aircraft. After said incident I proceeded to contact Dispatch/Maintenance and wrote up the aircraft log with the event.Better training for Wing Walkers; more stringent requirements for ground personnel that have the responsibility for parking the aircraft.

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.