The pushback crew failed to maintain communication with the flight crew during the push operation.

Attributes
ACN	880409
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Type 8700
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Narrative:

After initial interphone contact with ramp personnel for pushback; and after [pushback] clearance received and verbalized to ramp; pushback crew disconnected from interphone. Pushback initiated without interphone communication available from cockpit. When we queried on pushback if we were cleared to start engines there was no response. If ground had told us to stop the push because of traffic on the taxiway we would not have been able to communicate this to the pushback crew. At the completion of the push; the pushback crew reestablished communication with the cockpit. It was communicated to them that this was not SOP to disconnect communication during pushback. Flight continued uneventfully.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pushback crew failed to maintain communication with the flight crew during the push operation.

Narrative: After initial interphone contact with ramp personnel for pushback; and after [pushback] clearance received and verbalized to ramp; pushback crew disconnected from interphone. Pushback initiated without interphone communication available from cockpit. When we queried on pushback if we were cleared to start engines there was no response. If ground had told us to stop the push because of traffic on the taxiway we would not have been able to communicate this to the pushback crew. At the completion of the push; the pushback crew reestablished communication with the cockpit. It was communicated to them that this was not SOP to disconnect communication during pushback. Flight continued uneventfully.

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.