A320 captain describes non-standard procedures being used by his company's ground crew and believes ...

Narrative:

I just finished a four day trip last night and I kept careful notes on each flight plan regarding the lack of correct verbiage and pushback procedures. Each time we were pushed back; the 'wing walkers' would stand off the nose because they did not want (or know) to be on the wings. Sounds like no big deal right? Well as luck would have it; while pushing back in las; the ground crew pushed us back at an odd angle and we heard a snap and severe shudder in the cockpit. I watched in amazement as metal parts went flying just past one of the wing walkers head as he was standing to the right of the tug as the shear-pin exploded. We then had a runaway aircraft and I carefully set the brakes as we slowed. The ground personnel then stated that all was well and we could go! I said no; we needed to be tugged back to the gate for inspection. There was absolutely no SOP followed on this pushback from incorrect verbiage to no callout whatsoever regarding the break-away aircraft. The pushback procedures we are using are going to seriously injure somebody. Our ceo needs to ride in the cockpit on a 4 day trip and watch the egregious things that happen as a result of either no training or poorly executed training.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain describes non-standard procedures being used by his company's ground crew and believes it is only a matter of time until someone is injured.

Narrative: I just finished a four day trip last night and I kept careful notes on each flight plan regarding the lack of correct verbiage and pushback procedures. Each time we were pushed back; the 'wing walkers' would stand off the nose because they did not want (or know) to be on the wings. Sounds like no big deal right? Well as luck would have it; while pushing back in LAS; the ground crew pushed us back at an odd angle and we heard a snap and severe shudder in the cockpit. I watched in amazement as metal parts went flying just past one of the wing walkers head as he was standing to the right of the tug as the shear-pin exploded. We then had a runaway aircraft and I carefully set the brakes as we slowed. The ground personnel then stated that all was well and we could go! I said no; we needed to be tugged back to the gate for inspection. There was absolutely no SOP followed on this pushback from incorrect verbiage to no callout whatsoever regarding the break-away aircraft. The pushback procedures we are using are going to seriously injure somebody. Our CEO needs to ride in the cockpit on a 4 day trip and watch the egregious things that happen as a result of either no training or poorly executed training.

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	981469
Time
Date	201111
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	LAS.Airport
State Reference	NV
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 270 Flight Crew Total 21500 Flight Crew Type 3300
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A320 captain describes non-standard procedures being used by his company's ground crew and believes it is only a matter of time until someone is injured.