Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Preflight of the aircraft was normal. As the ramp agent attached the pushback tug to the aircraft he asked us if we could straighten the nose wheel. I told him over the headset that I could but would have to activate the nose wheel steering to do so. I then instructed him to make sure he and all equipment was clear of the nose wheel to which he said it was. I then turned on hydraulic system power and activated the nose wheel steering via the tiller. I then disengaged the nose wheel steering and turned off the hydraulic power. The ramp agent then appeared to unhook the tug from the airplane and reposition the tug to hook back up to the airplane from off the left side of the nose wheel on an angle. He then hooked up the airplane to the tug; lifted the nose of the airplane; and said he was ready for pushback. We obtained a pushback clearance and he proceeded to push us back normally. After the pushback was complete I set the parking brake and told him he was clear to disconnect. He unhooked the tug from the airplane and set the nose of the airplane down. As he slid the 'tray' of the tug out from under the nose wheel it felt to us in the cockpit as if the nose wheel was turning as the tug slid out from under it. Obviously we could not see the position of the nose wheel from the cockpit during any of this. The ramp agent then informed us that the nose wheel has turned 180 deg and we then called maintenance control. We never touched or activated the nose wheel steering or hydraulics after the initial time in the gate when the ramp agent asked us to straighten the nose wheel.
The Captain of an Embraer reported that after push-back the nose wheel was completely turned around.