An A320 captain stopped his aircraft's pushback because he observed other ground personnel observing...

Narrative:

We began our push from the gate. We got about 150 feet back and I noticed a lot of ground workers over at another gate. There were several workers there and some of them had yellow jackets stating 'training crew' or something similar. I noticed them looking to the north (where they had pushed a dash 8). One of them in particular looked very concerned as he kept looking at our aircraft and then to the dash (I could not see the dash at this point). I could see him attempting to communicate with our tug driver. At this point I told the driver to halt the push immediately as it was obvious something was wrong to my 7 or 8 o'clock position. He stopped. This prevented a ground collision with the dash 8. It appeared to me that the dash was pushed to the west side of where it should be. The tug driver told me they appeared to be at least 20 feet off the mark where they should be. There was no damage as we were able to stop before being pushed into the dash. There are two problems that led to this near collision. The first is the obvious. The dash was not pushed properly. The second is not so obvious but will eventually lead to a ground collision if not corrected. I was told by the tug driver and ramp control we only have one wing walker. This wing walker is always on the right side of the aircraft. It seems to me that someone needs to be responsible for the left side of the aircraft too. I am told we only have one wing walker per gate (at least in denver). This is an unsafe situation and needs to be corrected. Without being too sarcastic; the last I knew there are two wings on each aircraft. How is it we don't think it is important to have a wing walker on each wing? Who is responsible to watch the left wing of the aircraft? Are we just assuming it will be 'ok'? Solution: have the proper manpower to run an airline properly. It is that simple. We try to cut corners in too many areas. This causes us to put airplanes; employees and passengers in situations that can and will cause injury.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 Captain stopped his aircraft's pushback because he observed other ground personnel observing his and another aircraft under tow approaching a ground collision.

Narrative: We began our push from the gate. We got about 150 feet back and I noticed a lot of ground workers over at another gate. There were several workers there and some of them had yellow jackets stating 'training crew' or something similar. I noticed them looking to the north (where they had pushed a Dash 8). One of them in particular looked very concerned as he kept looking at our aircraft and then to the Dash (I could not see the Dash at this point). I could see him attempting to communicate with our tug driver. At this point I told the driver to halt the push immediately as it was obvious something was wrong to my 7 or 8 o'clock position. He stopped. This prevented a ground collision with the Dash 8. It appeared to me that the Dash was pushed to the west side of where it should be. The tug driver told me they appeared to be at least 20 feet off the mark where they should be. There was no damage as we were able to stop before being pushed into the Dash. There are two problems that led to this near collision. The first is the obvious. The Dash was not pushed properly. The second is not so obvious but will eventually lead to a ground collision if not corrected. I was told by the tug driver and ramp control we only have one wing walker. This wing walker is always on the right side of the aircraft. It seems to me that someone needs to be responsible for the left side of the aircraft too. I am told we only have one wing walker per gate (at least in Denver). This is an unsafe situation and needs to be corrected. Without being too sarcastic; the last I knew there are two wings on each aircraft. How is it we don't think it is important to have a wing walker on each wing? Who is responsible to watch the left wing of the aircraft? Are we just assuming it will be 'OK'? Solution: Have the proper manpower to run an airline properly. It is that simple. We try to cut corners in too many areas. This causes us to put airplanes; employees and passengers in situations that can and will cause injury.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	849372
Time
Date	200908
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	DEN.Airport
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250 Flight Crew Total 16500 Flight Crew Type 7000
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Aircraft

An A320 captain stopped his aircraft's pushback because he observed other ground personnel observing his and another aircraft under tow approaching a ground collision.