Narrative:

Taxied in; parked and stopped when directed by the ground marshaller. Shut down the remaining engine and proceeded with the parking checklist. At this time we observed the original ground marshaller give us a signal to taxi forward since he had apparently stopped us at the wrong spot. Obviously we could not do that since we were already shut down. He proceeded to connect a tow bar to the aircraft and attempted to pull the aircraft forward; all with zero communication to the cockpit. The aircraft did not move since the parking brake was set. He then ran off to get a headset; returned to plug it in only to find out it did not work. I opened the window and asked his wing walker teammate what he was trying to do. He indicated that we had to be moved a few feet forward. We agreed to use hand signals only to find out they both had no idea what the proper hand signals should be. We conducted the tow in checklist and had to yell at them out the window to install the nose wheel disconnect pin prior to getting towed. Off they run to go get a pin. Return; install the pin then attempt to pull the aircraft with the parking brake set again. I asked the wing walker if he was ready for the parking brake to be released. 'Oh yeah; please release the parking brake.' I complied; we got pulled forward a few feet and then we waited as the jetway driver started coming towards the aircraft. Once again; I yelled out the window to the wing walker to find out if they wanted the parking brake set. 'Oh yeah; please set the parking brake.' this entire evolution was just a complete comedy of errors perpetrated by this untrained ground crew. The potential for damage to the aircraft and ground personnel was extremely high. The lack of understanding displayed was staggering.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain reported multiple deviations from SOP during aircraft tug movement at the gate.

Narrative: Taxied in; parked and stopped when directed by the ground marshaller. Shut down the remaining engine and proceeded with the parking checklist. At this time we observed the original ground marshaller give us a signal to taxi forward since he had apparently stopped us at the wrong spot. Obviously we could not do that since we were already shut down. He proceeded to connect a tow bar to the aircraft and attempted to pull the aircraft forward; all with zero communication to the cockpit. The aircraft did not move since the parking brake was set. He then ran off to get a headset; returned to plug it in only to find out it did not work. I opened the window and asked his wing walker teammate what he was trying to do. He indicated that we had to be moved a few feet forward. We agreed to use hand signals only to find out they both had no idea what the proper hand signals should be. We conducted the tow in checklist and had to yell at them out the window to install the nose wheel disconnect pin prior to getting towed. Off they run to go get a pin. Return; install the pin then attempt to pull the aircraft with the parking brake set again. I asked the wing walker if he was ready for the parking brake to be released. 'Oh yeah; please release the parking brake.' I complied; we got pulled forward a few feet and then we waited as the jetway driver started coming towards the aircraft. Once again; I yelled out the window to the wing walker to find out if they wanted the parking brake set. 'Oh yeah; please set the parking brake.' This entire evolution was just a complete comedy of errors perpetrated by this untrained ground crew. The potential for damage to the aircraft and ground personnel was extremely high. The lack of understanding displayed was staggering.

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.