A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; General Maintenance Action
Procedure; Human Factors
Parking at PHX; marshaller requested to push aircraft back; tow bar unhooked from aircraft; aircraft struck a catering truck.While taxiing in at KPHX; stopped on 'M' line; tug and cart in safety zone; marshaled in at wands crossed set Park brake; Seat belt sign 'OFF'; ENG 1 master 'OFF'. Unintelligible hand signals?? I 'Capt.' requested intercom communications; no response; called ramp tower; they had no information. Marshaller indicated he wanted to hook-up tug and push aircraft back. Tug driven into position; under aircraft nose out of line of sight. Release brakes hand signal given/received; I released Park brake. Began push back I thought they would push back 2/3 feet. Lots of hand waving by ground personal. Aircraft seemed to be rolling back on its own; I applied brakes & stopped aircraft; set Park Brake. I looked back over my left shoulder and saw a catering truck behind the left wing. Called Ramp and requested a Supervisor and Chief Pilot showed-up about 15 minutes later. Maintenance personal came on board. Chief Pilot escorted the First Officer and myself to drug testing. Later that evening I realized I had not entered a write-up in the AML.
After an uneventful redeye flight from Phoenix we taxied into gate to a final stop on the guide man's signal. The shutdown flow/ checklist was completed and we waited for the ''jet bridge to be hooked up. As is customary with the seatbelt sign being turned off; passengers had begun to stand and collect their belongings awaiting the cabin door to be opened. Shortly thereafter we noticed the guide man (who was wearing a crew chief safety vest) indicating to us that he needed to move the airplane back a small amount for jetway alignment. He did not use a headset for this communication but it was clear from his body language as well as lip reading what he was requesting. I asked the captain if he'd like me to call the cabin and advise them; the captain requested that I open the cockpit door and communicate it directly to the lead FA. I got up and as I ''opened the cockpit door the aircraft began what felt like the beginning of a normal push back (normal initial bump followed by a slow reverse). The start of the push caught me somewhat off guard because I didn't expect it to occur until after I'd spoken with the lead FA and returned to my seat. Because I was out of my seat advising the lead FA; I did not observe the interaction with the ''guide man'' prior to the push. After the few seconds communication with the lead FA I sat back down in my seat. Initially the push looked completely normal from my perspective but within a few seconds the depth of the push seemed significantly greater that what would be necessary to align the aircraft with the jetway. At the same time the captain and I began communicating over the depth of the push the ground crew began making gestures that indicated something abnormal was happening. The gestures were not standard hand signals. At that point the captain stopped the aircraft with brakes. It wasn't until the captain stopped the aircraft was it apparent that we weren't connected to the tug because the tug didn't stop with us. The entire time we were moving the tug appeared to be in a normal position that lead me to believe the tug was in control of our backwards movement and had cleared the area behind the aircraft. After the aircraft was stopped the tug was reconnected to the airplane and pulled into the correct spot for the jetway.'' After being reconnected to the tug and pulled back into the gate we were advised by the ground crew that a catering truck had been behind the aircraft and a flap canoe on the left wing made contact with a catering truck causing slight damage. While being escorted by the chief pilot for drug testing we were advised that a standing passenger had fallen over when the brakes were applied and suffered injury.
An Airbus flight crew reported their aircraft becoming detached from a tug while being repositioned at the arrival gate. This resulted in contact with a catering vehicle; causing minor damage; before the brakes were applied. Also; they reported injury to a standing passenger due to abrupt braking.