MD11 relief officer reported the crew pushed back without a clearance.

Attributes
ACN	1683457
Time
Date	201909
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZZ.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-11
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Conflict Ground Conflict Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Incursion Taxiway

Narrative:

As reserve first officer (rfo) in the observer's seat while the check airman and first officer IOE student had completed check-list and called for beacon and push-back I became distracted with the other rfo concerning his communication head-set. We pushed back and were told by ramp tower that we did not have push back clearance. I do remember hearing push-back clearance to another aircraft before us. Clearly after hearing about our lack of clearance; they had wanted the other aircraft to sequence out before us. I had looked to my right to see another aircraft pushing back a few gates down to our right. With our push-back we had blocked his taxi-out route. While we pushed back all the area around us was clear. I believe the crew misheard the ATC communication and believed they had push-back clearance. Not sure if language barrier could have contributed. Do not allow ones attention to be diverted at critical junctures. As the rfo in the observer's seat I allowed the other rfo in the seat behind the captain to engage me with an issue with his head-set and missed the push-back request call ATC response.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD11 Relief Officer reported the crew pushed back without a clearance.

Narrative: As Reserve First Officer (RFO) in the observer's seat while the Check Airman and First Officer IOE student had completed check-list and called for beacon and push-back I became distracted with the other RFO concerning his communication head-set. We pushed back and were told by Ramp Tower that we did not have push back clearance. I do remember hearing push-back clearance to another aircraft before us. Clearly after hearing about our lack of clearance; they had wanted the other aircraft to sequence out before us. I had looked to my right to see another aircraft pushing back a few gates down to our right. With our push-back we had blocked his taxi-out route. While we pushed back all the area around us was clear. I believe the crew misheard the ATC communication and believed they had push-back clearance. Not sure if language barrier could have contributed. Do not allow ones attention to be diverted at critical junctures. As the RFO in the observer's seat I allowed the other RFO in the seat behind the Captain to engage me with an issue with his head-set and missed the push-back request call ATC response.

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.