B737-300
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 186; Flight Crew Type 19000
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
When we were ready for pushback; the Ground Crew was not answering our calls.  The cabin door was closed and the jetway was back.  I had a feeling the wireless headset was not working as it should.  At one point; I could hear the beeping in the headset that you sometimes get when the headset is plugged in but there is no one on the other end.  When the beeping went away I still could not hear the Ramper.  Then I heard him disconnect the headset and I saw him walk away with it.   He retrieved a headset with a wire on it and plugged it in.  It worked and I talked with him.  But; he said the wire was too short and he could not wear it and drive the tug at the same time.  So; he asked if we could just use hand signals for the pushback.  I verified that the doors were all closed; the walk around was completed; and that the airplane number was correct.  Then I okayed the pushback with hand signals.   After the push back was complete and brakes were set; I saw the two Rampers driving away.  I gave them the hold signal and luckily the Driver saw me and stopped.  I pointed to my nose and signaled him to show me the bypass pin.  I could see that he asked the guy sitting next to him if he had remembered to remove the pin.  The guy smiled and shook his head yes.  Then they both looked at me and shook their heads yes.  I still had not seen the pin or its flag.  So I shook my head no and again pointed to my nose and continued to hold my other hand up with the stop signal.  Then I saw the Driver ask the other Ramper to show me the pin.  Then he began to look for it and at once they both realized that it was still installed.  So he ran up to the plane; removed the pin; and showed it to me.  The distraction of not following procedure could have caused the pin to go unnoticed.
During a pushback using hand signals; a B737 Captain persisted in requiring a visual check of the nose bypass pin which had; in fact; been left in.