Commercial Fixed Wing
Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
I have noticed that wing walking is suffering from the term normalization of deviances. Every day I witness [ramp employees] improperly wing walking to varying degrees. Some are standing with the pushback tug and when it's time to push they are running toward the rear of the plane after movement has begun; or standing together on one side of the aircraft talking and not paying attention to the aircraft movement; therefore not controlling the vehicle traffic; standing by the wing and walking with the plane never controlling oncoming traffic behind the aircraft; using a personal device while wing walking; not keeping an eye on wing tips or tail when approaching an adjacent taxiing aircraft to the end of movement; wing walking out of sight of anyone driving; therefore causing the driver to make split second decisions as to stop; speed up or turn around behind a dispatching aircraft; wing walkers just not paying attention to their surroundings or what is happening behind their fellow wing walker; not staying in sight of the pushback driver so that when a stop signal is given to stop the aircraft the driver can bring the plane to a halt or pushback drivers not obeying the signal of the wing walker. I have even seen Maintenance push aircraft back without wing walkers from satellite parking areas and the list could go on. These are deviances seen on a daily basis; which now takes on normality; business as usual on the busy [ramp]; normalization of deviances. I'm not sure if the ramp supervisors even notice any more and I don't see but one safety advocate and she can't be in all places at once. FYI; I am only referring to outbound wing walking.
Air carrier ramp employee reported noticing multiple deviations from safe SOP operations on the ramp.