Narrative:

Approximately 3 minutes before scheduled departure; the ground crew person checked in and asked me to 'set the parking brake so he could connect the tow bar.' this confused me because the parking brake was already set and this was not part of the new pushback procedures. I informed him the brakes were already set. He again asked me to set the brakes. I said the brakes were set. I then asked him if he was ready for pushback; and he said 'yes.' it was obvious that he did not know the correct pushback communications. I asked him if he actually meant for me to release the brakes (not set them) for pushback? He said yes. When we were cleared for push; I released the brakes and told him we were cleared to push. The tug pushed us and the ground person cleared us to start engines. I directed the first officer to start the engines. It was night time and hard to see the ramp. After we were pushed back parallel to the building; the next verbal communication from the ground person I received was 'tow bar was disconnected.' I automatically responded 'disconnect headset.' I later noticed that the parking brake was not yet set. I set the parking brake and looked at the engine instruments to see if the engines were running and asked the first officer to get taxi clearance. When I turned back; the marshaller was standing with his arms in the 'hold position/stand-by' and I flashed the taxi light and the marshaller gave me a salute and started to walk away back to the terminal. I was trying to figure out where the tug went to; because I didn't think the tug could have cleared that fast. While I was searching the ramp around the gate for the tug; I noticed the tug was backing away from the nose of the aircraft and there was also a man walking away from the nose of the airplane. I pulled my hand off the throttles and waited for the tug and ground person to get clear of the aircraft before I taxied. If I had not seen the tug; I would have started taxing and possibly hit the tug and injured the ground person. The marshaller did not follow the new pushback procedures either and released me to taxi before the tug and other ground personnel were clear of the aircraft. It was definitely an unsafe condition that could have resulted in personal injury and damage to ground equipment and the airplane.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain describes possible training deficiencies while attempting to use new push back procedures. The Captain is cleared to taxi by one ground crewman while the tug is still out of sight under the nose.

Narrative: Approximately 3 minutes before scheduled departure; the ground crew person checked in and asked me to 'set the parking brake so he could connect the tow bar.' This confused me because the parking brake was already set and this was not part of the new pushback procedures. I informed him the brakes were already set. He again asked me to set the brakes. I said the brakes were set. I then asked him if he was ready for pushback; and he said 'Yes.' It was obvious that he did not know the correct pushback communications. I asked him if he actually meant for me to release the brakes (not set them) for pushback? He said yes. When we were cleared for push; I released the brakes and told him we were cleared to push. The tug pushed us and the ground person cleared us to start engines. I directed the First Officer to start the engines. It was night time and hard to see the ramp. After we were pushed back parallel to the building; the next verbal communication from the ground person I received was 'tow bar was disconnected.' I automatically responded 'disconnect headset.' I later noticed that the parking brake was not yet set. I set the parking brake and looked at the engine instruments to see if the engines were running and asked the First Officer to get taxi clearance. When I turned back; the marshaller was standing with his arms in the 'hold position/stand-by' and I flashed the taxi light and the marshaller gave me a salute and started to walk away back to the terminal. I was trying to figure out where the tug went to; because I didn't think the tug could have cleared that fast. While I was searching the ramp around the gate for the tug; I noticed the tug was backing away from the nose of the aircraft and there was also a man walking away from the nose of the airplane. I pulled my hand off the throttles and waited for the tug and ground person to get clear of the aircraft before I taxied. If I had not seen the tug; I would have started taxing and possibly hit the tug and injured the ground person. The marshaller did not follow the new pushback procedures either and released me to taxi before the tug and other ground personnel were clear of the aircraft. It was definitely an unsafe condition that could have resulted in personal injury and damage to ground equipment and the airplane.

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.