Narrative:

I arrived at the aircraft approximately 45 minutes before departure. The aircraft was parked at spot 'kilo'; in the center of the horseshoe at the 12:00 position. As I reached up to open the main cabin door; I was blown into a garbage can about 12' away. My hat was blown up against the walkway. This blast lasted for about 4-5 seconds and went away. The garbage can was full or the two of us would have rolled over onto each other. As I went over to pick up my hat; I saw a crj taxiing out of 'spot 1' (east side of our exit/entry point) located at 'mike' (just short of alpha) in the horse shoe. From the heat waves; it appeared to me that the aircraft was 'single engine'; although operations notes specify that we use two engine taxi. Earlier today; we pushed back from spot 'kilo' and onto 'spot 1'. We started both engines normally. After we received clearance to taxi out; I applied thrust very carefully to get the aircraft to move. From my perspective; it takes a great deal more thrust to move an aircraft from 'spot 1' than to taxi away from 'spot 2' (just west of spot 1). When we pushed back; I was paying extra attention to see if I felt the aircraft settle into a low spot or otherwise soft area at spot 1 - nothing was felt. In the past; I've been told that the ramp is not 'stressed' to handle our aircraft; and also I've been told that this issue is being addressed (regarding the ramp overall). However; I've not seen or heard of anything about this actually happening. In retrospect; I never realized that the thrust from our aircraft would reach into the ramp that far. Fortunately; it was me who experienced this jet blast (without any injury) as opposed to a vulnerable passenger who could have been seriously injured. It is easy for me to speculate about whether the ramp is not stressed; or the pavement is soft or many other possibilities; but I'll leave that to the experts. In the mean time; I am concerned that a passenger or co-worker could be injured should they be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reported jet blast from an aircraft taxiing on the ramp physically moved him as he approached his aircraft.

Narrative: I arrived at the aircraft approximately 45 minutes before departure. The aircraft was parked at spot 'Kilo'; in the center of the horseshoe at the 12:00 position. As I reached up to open the main cabin door; I was blown into a garbage can about 12' away. My hat was blown up against the walkway. This blast lasted for about 4-5 seconds and went away. The garbage can was full or the two of us would have rolled over onto each other. As I went over to pick up my hat; I saw a CRJ taxiing out of 'spot 1' (east side of our exit/entry point) located at 'Mike' (just short of Alpha) in the horse shoe. From the heat waves; it appeared to me that the aircraft was 'single engine'; although operations notes specify that we use two engine taxi. Earlier today; we pushed back from spot 'Kilo' and onto 'spot 1'. We started both engines normally. After we received clearance to taxi out; I applied thrust very carefully to get the aircraft to move. From my perspective; it takes a great deal more thrust to move an aircraft from 'spot 1' than to taxi away from 'spot 2' (just west of spot 1). When we pushed back; I was paying extra attention to see if I felt the aircraft settle into a low spot or otherwise soft area at spot 1 - nothing was felt. In the past; I've been told that the ramp is not 'stressed' to handle our aircraft; and also I've been told that this issue is being addressed (regarding the ramp overall). However; I've not seen or heard of anything about this actually happening. In retrospect; I never realized that the thrust from our aircraft would reach into the ramp that far. Fortunately; it was me who experienced this jet blast (without any injury) as opposed to a vulnerable passenger who could have been seriously injured. It is easy for me to speculate about whether the ramp is not stressed; or the pavement is soft or many other possibilities; but I'll leave that to the experts. In the mean time; I am concerned that a passenger or co-worker could be injured should they be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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.