Narrative:

During engine start and push back there were several complications and errors on the part of the ground crew. Due to the fact that their air cart was broken and the temperature was near 100 degrees we boarded as quickly as possible in an effort to get the passengers on board before the cabin heated up too much and to get the engine started to provide air conditioning. This went smoothly until the engine start. The aircraft was closed up and we were ready to start the engine; but the ground crew was not paying attention to the signal to start the engine. My attempts to get their attention included waving paper out the whisky hatch; knocking on the outside on the aircraft with my palm as they walked by and using a hand held radio (which they had left on board the aircraft mistakenly) to contact them. None of these attracted attention. This is in my opinion a problem in and of itself that there is nobody paying attention/communicating with the flight at this point. However; the larger problem is a pattern of disregard for SOP; lack of understand of SOP; and I think a lack of training bordering on dangerous incompetence. Once I finally got someone's attention she gave me the signal to start the engine from the left side of the aircraft with one wand. Further the hand signals were incorrect as she was pointing straight ahead at the aircraft with her right hand (in front of the #1 engine) and circling her left hand (without a wand) at the #2 engine. Another of the ground crew saw the error and brought her another wand and we started the right engine while he backed her up. I would later find out that this girl is a trainee. However; why would she feel it ok to do this unless see is seeing others at the station doing the same? The push back process digressed further and displayed many levels of misunderstanding about the push back process. There were two people riding in the cab of the tug... Only one wearing a headset; which was passed back and forth between the trainer and trainee. After some complication as to who was wearing the headset (trainee was wearing it but either not able to use it or choosing not to communicate with me) the headset was handed off to the trainer. She immediately asked if we had; 'contacted the tower.' I responded that we had not and that the brake was released and she was clear to capture while giving the hand signal for brake release. I got no hand signal back and the headset was handed back to the trainee. A few moments later the aircraft started moving. I started yelling; 'stop the plane; stop the plane; do not push the aircraft; stop the plane' however; the airplane was still moving. I crossed my forearms in an x in the front window at the same time; but this was completely unnoticed. I got no response from the trainee over the headset either. The plane stopped after a few feet (considerably further than 15 inches). I said; 'give the headset to the girl next to you.' the headset was handed to whom I assume to be the trainer. I said; 'do not move this plane; do not move the aircraft.' she responded; 'we are training.' I responded; 'it is not ok to move this aircraft without me telling you to; do not move this aircraft; I will tell you when it is ok to push.' she responded snippily; 'well I am sorry; but we are training.' perhaps she felt insulted or that I had usurped her authority as a trainer; but given the complete lack of communication; the lack of proper signals; the plane moving without any kind of communication with me - and the trainee not knowing how to use the headset which was my only line of communication - I was definitely upset with what was going on. I very sternly and with as much authority as humanly possible told her; 'no apology makes this ok; I don't care about apologies; this aircraft doesn't move until I say so; do not move this aircraft; it is not acceptable; do not move the aircraft again until I tell you to; apologies do not matter do not move the aircraft' at no time did I swear at her in saying this. I was by no means calm and nice; but I absolutely did not swear at her. I simply needed to make the point as clear as possible that she needed to not move the airplane again until given clearance to do so. I felt that this was important to make this as blunt as possible given the complete lack of proper procedure on the part of the trainer as well as the failed communication. It is unfortunate that I may have stepped on her toes to make the point; but it was clear that the push back was not going to happen properly and it seemed the best; if not only way; to stress the importance that the aircraft not move. I could have been nicer; but it would not have guaranteed a reliable response. According to a manager who called me regarding the issue; the trainer stated that I said; 'brakes released; good to go.' this is absurd. It is not the proper verbiage and is definitely not what I said. However; I think it is important that this is highlighted as it shows the incompetence and complete lack of understanding that the trainer is exhibiting. She so misunderstands the procedure that she feels that it is ok to put this into her report that she decided to push after hearing this! She must think that would be enough communication from the flight deck to push. Moreover; this is being handed on to the trainee who believes that it is ok to work without hand signals and push aircraft without confirmation from the flight deck. It is almost hard to believe; but I can only assume that the was no ground personnel in this process - either trainer; trainee; or the others watching this - who actually understand the proper verbal communication or hand signals involved in pushing an airplane. As a further note; the air cart is broken at this station. Trainers at this station are not properly trained themselves and are handing on their lack of knowledge and bad habits to their trainees. I noticed about a month ago as the station was being handed off to the new staff that the trainers who had come in to the station were doing most of the tug driving and performing all the hand signals. I even noted to myself at the time that if the new people were not doing this with him that there would be issues. I think the staff needs to be retrained at this station as to how to perform push back operations. What I find most disturbing is that the ground crew at this station felt that by writing up an operational issues report that is a fabrication of events and an out and out lie about me swearing at them that they would deflect and weaken an incident that displays their own lack of understanding of SOP. It is quite unfortunate that I am now put into a position where I have to defend my actions in an incident that was their doing. I have never sworn in anger at any employee at the company and never will. There is simply no reason why the ground crew would have put together their report as they have unless they felt they needed to protect themselves against whatever my report of the event was to be. It is very unfortunate indeed that my behavior is called into question while the issue of incompetence and poor training are ignored. Further; there is flatly a lie involved; which to me is the very most despicable thing in a workplace. The company should retrain the entire station on push back operations as nobody has any idea what they are doing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A SF340 Captain related an unfortunate experience with a pushback conducted by a trainee and her instructor. Highlights were an almost complete breakdown in communication and subsequent movement of the aircraft without clearance from Ground/Ramp control or the PIC.

Narrative: During engine start and push back there were several complications and errors on the part of the ground crew. Due to the fact that their air cart was broken and the temperature was near 100 degrees we boarded as quickly as possible in an effort to get the passengers on board before the cabin heated up too much and to get the engine started to provide air conditioning. This went smoothly until the engine start. The aircraft was closed up and we were ready to start the engine; but the ground crew was not paying attention to the signal to start the engine. My attempts to get their attention included waving paper out the whisky hatch; knocking on the outside on the aircraft with my palm as they walked by and using a hand held radio (which they had left on board the aircraft mistakenly) to contact them. None of these attracted attention. This is in my opinion a problem in and of itself that there is nobody paying attention/communicating with the flight at this point. However; the larger problem is a pattern of disregard for SOP; lack of understand of SOP; and I think a lack of training bordering on dangerous incompetence. Once I finally got someone's attention she gave me the signal to start the engine from the left side of the aircraft with one wand. Further the hand signals were incorrect as she was pointing straight ahead at the aircraft with her right hand (in front of the #1 engine) and circling her left hand (without a wand) at the #2 engine. Another of the ground crew saw the error and brought her another wand and we started the right engine while he backed her up. I would later find out that this girl is a trainee. However; why would she feel it OK to do this unless see is seeing others at the station doing the same? The push back process digressed further and displayed many levels of misunderstanding about the push back process. There were two people riding in the cab of the tug... only one wearing a headset; which was passed back and forth between the trainer and trainee. After some complication as to who was wearing the headset (trainee was wearing it but either not able to use it or choosing not to communicate with me) the headset was handed off to the trainer. She immediately asked if we had; 'contacted the tower.' I responded that we had not and that the brake was released and she was clear to capture while giving the hand signal for brake release. I got no hand signal back and the headset was handed back to the trainee. A few moments later the aircraft started moving. I started yelling; 'stop the plane; stop the plane; do not push the aircraft; stop the plane' However; the airplane was still moving. I crossed my forearms in an x in the front window at the same time; but this was completely unnoticed. I got no response from the trainee over the headset either. The plane stopped after a few feet (considerably further than 15 inches). I said; 'give the headset to the girl next to you.' The headset was handed to whom I assume to be the trainer. I said; 'do not move this plane; do not move the aircraft.' She responded; 'We are training.' I responded; 'It is not OK to move this aircraft without me telling you to; do not move this aircraft; I will tell you when it is OK to push.' She responded snippily; 'Well I am sorry; but we are training.' Perhaps she felt insulted or that I had usurped her authority as a trainer; but given the complete lack of communication; the lack of proper signals; the plane moving without any kind of communication with me - and the trainee not knowing how to use the headset which was my only line of communication - I was definitely upset with what was going on. I very sternly and with as much authority as humanly possible told her; 'No apology makes this OK; I don't care about apologies; this aircraft doesn't move until I say so; do not move this aircraft; it is not acceptable; do not move the aircraft again until I tell you to; apologies do not matter do not move the aircraft' At no time did I swear at her in saying this. I was by no means calm and nice; but I absolutely did not swear at her. I simply needed to make the point as clear as possible that she needed to not move the airplane again until given clearance to do so. I felt that this was important to make this as blunt as possible given the complete lack of proper procedure on the part of the trainer as well as the failed communication. It is unfortunate that I may have stepped on her toes to make the point; but it was clear that the push back was not going to happen properly and it seemed the best; if not only way; to stress the importance that the aircraft not move. I could have been nicer; but it would not have guaranteed a reliable response. According to a manager who called me regarding the issue; the trainer stated that I said; 'Brakes released; good to go.' This is absurd. It is not the proper verbiage and is definitely not what I said. However; I think it is important that this is highlighted as it shows the incompetence and complete lack of understanding that the trainer is exhibiting. She so misunderstands the procedure that she feels that it is OK to put this into her report that she decided to push after hearing this! She must think that would be enough communication from the flight deck to push. Moreover; this is being handed on to the trainee who believes that it is OK to work without hand signals and push aircraft without confirmation from the flight deck. It is almost hard to believe; but I can only assume that the was no ground personnel in this process - either trainer; trainee; or the others watching this - who actually understand the proper verbal communication or hand signals involved in pushing an airplane. As a further note; the air cart is broken at this station. Trainers at this station are not properly trained themselves and are handing on their lack of knowledge and bad habits to their trainees. I noticed about a month ago as the station was being handed off to the new staff that the trainers who had come in to the station were doing most of the tug driving and performing all the hand signals. I even noted to myself at the time that if the new people were not doing this with him that there would be issues. I think the staff needs to be retrained at this station as to how to perform push back operations. What I find most disturbing is that the ground crew at this station felt that by writing up an operational issues report that is a fabrication of events and an out and out lie about me swearing at them that they would deflect and weaken an incident that displays their own lack of understanding of SOP. It is quite unfortunate that I am now put into a position where I have to defend my actions in an incident that was their doing. I have never sworn in anger at any employee at the company and never will. There is simply no reason why the ground crew would have put together their report as they have unless they felt they needed to protect themselves against whatever my report of the event was to be. It is very unfortunate indeed that my behavior is called into question while the issue of incompetence and poor training are ignored. Further; there is flatly a lie involved; which to me is the very most despicable thing in a workplace. The company should retrain the entire station on push back operations as nobody has any idea what they are doing.

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.