<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1584068, October 2018

Ramp employee reported that the tongue locking mechanism on a ground power unit malfunctioned and injured a ramp employee.

Attributes
ACN	1584068
Time
Date	201810
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Ramp
Events
Anomaly	Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

I was in the process of pre-departure for [the] flight. I have just completed my walk around the aircraft and proceeded to move the ground power unit out of the envelope. I parked the unit; disconnected the tongue of the unit from the tractor and pushed it up so it would lock. The tongue was locked in the up position and stay in place. As I brought my hands down; the tongue locking mechanism malfunction and disengaged by itself and hit me in the jaw; causing major injury. Supervisor was called and notified. I never expected the tongue of the ground power unit to malfunction.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp employee reported that the tongue locking mechanism on a ground power unit malfunctioned and injured a ramp employee.

Narrative: I was in the process of pre-departure for [the] flight. I have just completed my walk around the aircraft and proceeded to move the ground power unit out of the envelope. I parked the unit; disconnected the tongue of the unit from the tractor and pushed it up so it would lock. The tongue was locked in the up position and stay in place. As I brought my hands down; the tongue locking mechanism malfunction and disengaged by itself and hit me in the jaw; causing major injury. Supervisor was called and notified. I never expected the tongue of the ground power unit to 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.