Narrative:

Towed aircraft to remote gate X. It's dark and wet out from rain/raining. I was lined up correctly on the 'J-line' for pulling in plane. When pulling in to space; wings made contact. The wing walker had lit wands; but I do not recall seeing him give me an 'X' to stop. If he had given me an X; early on; I could have stopped and re-evaluated the conditions further to explore my options; and incident would have been avoided. Now; it's night time; and raining. Remote lines are not well lit; not even reflective. Aircraft was towed to remote gate X. Gate Y and gate X are too close together in proximity. Gate Y shouldn't even be there; or gate X should be moved farther down away from gate Y; as there is lots of space on the other side of gate X. Gate Y had the wrong kind of aircraft parked there. There wasn't supposed to be an [X type aircraft] at gate Y. With both aircraft being [X type]; this was bound to happen; as the wing tips are going to touch (found out after the fact). Was towing this aircraft really necessary? We had 2 empty gates; the gate it was originally parked at (gate Z); plus gate za. We only had 1 other aircraft to arrive for the night. In trying to save money on the rental of a gate; we now have an aircraft damage that now costs more. As far as manpower; people are flying again; flights are reinstated; and we furlough people. With business picking up; there should have been fewer furloughs. Each airline should have its own parking space in the middle; with excess; if any; as first come first served. Some stations have a designated tow team. Our station is smaller; but we could still manage to have a tow team if the manpower permitted; and when not towing or repositioning; they help out in other arrivals/departures.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Tow driver reported towing an aircraft into a gate and having the towing aircraft's wing hit a parked aircraft at the adjacent gate.

Narrative: Towed aircraft to remote Gate X. It's dark and wet out from rain/raining. I was lined up correctly on the 'J-Line' for pulling in plane. When pulling in to space; wings made contact. The wing walker had lit wands; but I do not recall seeing him give me an 'X' to stop. If he had given me an X; early on; I could have stopped and re-evaluated the conditions further to explore my options; and incident would have been avoided. Now; it's night time; and raining. Remote lines are not well lit; not even reflective. Aircraft was towed to remote Gate X. Gate Y and Gate X are too close together in proximity. Gate Y shouldn't even be there; or Gate X should be moved farther down away from Gate Y; as there is lots of space on the other side of Gate X. Gate Y had the wrong kind of aircraft parked there. There wasn't supposed to be an [X type aircraft] at Gate Y. With both aircraft being [X type]; this was bound to happen; as the wing tips are going to touch (found out after the fact). Was towing this aircraft really necessary? We had 2 empty gates; the gate it was originally parked at (Gate Z); plus gate ZA. We only had 1 other aircraft to arrive for the night. In trying to save money on the rental of a gate; we now have an aircraft damage that now costs more. As far as manpower; people are flying again; flights are reinstated; and we furlough people. With business picking up; there should have been fewer furloughs. Each airline should have its own parking space in the middle; with excess; if any; as first come first served. Some stations have a designated tow team. Our station is smaller; but we could still manage to have a tow team if the manpower permitted; and when not towing or repositioning; they help out in other arrivals/departures.

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.