Emb-145 first officer reported the nose gear collapsed during an otherwise normal pushback.

Attributes
ACN	1410410
Time
Date	201612
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nose Gear
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

We were repositioning an empty airplane. The flight attendant was the only person in the cabin. We were pushing back from the gate when the nose gear collapsed. We had just begun to start the number 2 engine and we were still being pushed back. The tug had not yet started braking and he was not going very fast. All switches were in the normal positions for that phase of the flight and afterwards nothing appeared abnormal other than the gear collapsing.all switches were in the normal position; we were not being pushed back too fast and everything was normal other than the gear collapsing. There were no threats or errors leading to this undesirable aircraft state; it was a [mechanical] malfunction.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-145 First Officer reported the nose gear collapsed during an otherwise normal pushback.

Narrative: We were repositioning an empty airplane. The flight attendant was the only person in the cabin. We were pushing back from the gate when the nose gear collapsed. We had just begun to start the number 2 engine and we were still being pushed back. The tug had not yet started braking and he was not going very fast. All switches were in the normal positions for that phase of the flight and afterwards nothing appeared abnormal other than the gear collapsing.All switches were in the normal position; we were not being pushed back too fast and everything was normal other than the gear collapsing. There were no threats or errors leading to this undesirable aircraft state; it was a [mechanical] malfunction.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.