Medium large transport flight crew fails to obtain clearance prior to push back.

Attributes
ACN	325340
Time
Date	199601
Day	Fri
Local Time Of Day	1801 To 2400
Place
Locale Reference	airport : sfo
State Reference	CA
Altitude	agl bound lower : 0 agl bound upper : 0
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dusk
Aircraft 1
Operator	common carrier : air carrier
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	ground : preflight ground other : taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Affiliation	company : air carrier
Function	flight crew : captain oversight : pic
Qualification	pilot : commercial pilot : instrument pilot : atp
Experience	flight time last 90 days : 250 flight time total : 9000 flight time type : 4000
ASRS Report	325340
Person 2
Affiliation	company : air carrier
Function	flight crew : first officer
Qualification	pilot : commercial pilot : instrument
Events
Anomaly	non adherence : published procedure other anomaly other
Independent Detector	other controllera
Resolutory Action	none taken : detected after the fact
Consequence	faa : reviewed incident with flight crew
Supplementary
Primary Problem	Flight Crew Human Performance
Air Traffic Incident	Pilot Deviation

Narrative:

Aircraft pushed back from gate without clearance from ground control. Significant amount of banal chatter on ground control frequency contributed. There was some confusion as to whether push clearance had been received and acknowledged by first officer.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MLG FLC FAILS TO OBTAIN CLRNC PRIOR TO PUSH BACK.

Narrative: ACFT PUSHED BACK FROM GATE WITHOUT CLRNC FROM GND CTL. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF BANAL CHATTER ON GND CTL FREQ CONTRIBUTED. THERE WAS SOME CONFUSION AS TO WHETHER PUSH CLRNC HAD BEEN RECEIVED AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY FO.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2007 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.