Commercial Fixed Wing
Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Distraction; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Taxiway
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Environment - Non Weather Related; Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors; Procedure
I was towing an aircraft from gate to the hangar in ZZZ. After crossing Runway XXL; I was directed to contact Ground Control upon clearing the runway. After clearing Runway XXL on taxiway; I was trying to contact Ground Control; they were busy with radio chatter; so I kept the tug rolling about half speed (approximately 7 mph) waiting for the radio to clear. As I was approaching taxiway to turn left (south) towards the hangar; I looked right (north) then left (south) to make sure taxiway was clear. Both directions appeared clear. At that instant; I looked straight ahead and noticed taxi lights; coming from my right to left. I looked to the right again; around the tugs inside radio's and saw a Aircraft Y almost directly in front of me. I hit the brakes; he hit the brakes; and we both came to a complete stop; clear of each other. I was then contacted by Ground Control to give way to Aircraft Y and turn left and taxi to the hangar. Nothing was said by the controller about me doing anything incorrectly and nothing was said by the Aircraft Y pilots about anything and we continued on our way. However; I felt like this was too close for comfort due to the fact that the overall night time visibility in the [tug] is so poor I didn't see Aircraft Y that was probably less than 100 ft away. The VHF com radio's (2) in the ZZZ tug hang extremely low; just forward and to the right in the driver's field of vision. 99.9% of the time we deal with this issue and can avoid problems. As I discovered during this incident; with the perfect storm of bad timing and bad luck; this problem can be extremely dangerous. Not everything in this near incident was the radio's fault; I certainly hold myself mostly responsible; but they certainly caused me not to see the very large and close Aircraft Y. I'd hate to see something else happen due to the radios impeding the tug drivers field of vision. A possible re-arranging of the radios would be extremely helpful to prevent anything from happening in the future.
Air carrier tug driver reported a ground conflict with an aircraft on the taxiway; necessitating rapid braking.