Situational Awareness; Confusion; Troubleshooting
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General Maintenance Action
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
When retracting the canopy before pulling the jetbridge; the right side of the canopy would not retract. I called [Maintenance] to advise. The ramp service man came up to the bridge and advised there is a known problem with the retractor at this specific gate but will be able to retract the canopy back after the bridge is pulled back a few inches from the aircraft. I was not comfortable so notified zone to advise. Zone agreed to not move the jetbridge until [Maintenance] arrived. When they did; they pulled the bridge back with the right side of the canopy down. I observed the canopy slid to the left of the aircraft before pulling completely away from the aircraft. He then was able to retract the canopy as the ramp service man mentioned. I asked him what the issue was and he said this was SOP and was ok to pull the bridge with the canopy down. I challenged him as I knew this was completely inaccurate procedure. He advised me he has been doing this job for 24 years and this was SOP. I advised him perhaps he needed to reach out to the Jet bridge trainers for clarification. I notified Supervisors. Should this of happened to a new hire; the direction given by the mechanic would lead the agent to think it is ok to pull a jet bridge with retracting the canopy. I also learned shortly after the incident for this specific jet bridge; if the canopy is lowered too much on the right side; it will not retract. The work around is to pull the bridge back a few inches; then retract the canopy. This workaround is unacceptable as clearly you are at risk of damaging the aircraft and goes completely against SOP.
A Customer Service Gate Agent reported a known fault with a jetbridge requires using non standard procedures to operate correctly.