EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Object
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Procedure; Human Factors; Company Policy
As we pulled closer to the gate - but before getting to the service road that runs perpendicular to the gates; I did a visual scan of the area around the gate where the aircraft would be parked.  In my opinion it looked clear. There were several bag carts moving on the service road but they stopped to accommodate us. The DGS (docking guidance system) was working. There were no rampers at our gate but there were some at the [nearby] gate working. We decided the area was clear and proceeded to park with no rampers; but used the guidance from the parking system. Once we entered the gate area (30-40ft from the gate) my focus was on the DGS; the area in front of me and area to my left.  Approximately 3ft from being parked we felt a slight bump; almost like we had run over a fuel hose.  At that point a ramper got my First officer's attention and gave him a visual indication that we bumped into a bag cart on the right side of the aircraft.  The bottom leading edge of the aircraft's wing hit the bag cart's right rear corner roughly 1-2 ft from the tip of the wing. The wing went over the bag cart on the bottom side of the wing's leading edge and left a scratch. I immediately notified maintenance and my supervisor. This is a very poorly run ramp area with a lot of threats in every direction. But in this specific situation; some of the largest threats are as follows: The markings near the gate area are faint and unclear. A safety zone is not clearly marked for pilots if marked at all. There are red lines in front of the gate that extend out from the j-line and stop at the fueling area. They only let you know that you are clear of the fueling area. Other than that it's pretty tough to determine the exact boundaries of the safety area. In retrospect; other threats were that the cart was left in an unsafe location; we did not have rampers and I may have relied a little too much on the DGS (thinking that it provided obstruction clearance.)In the future if the boundaries are unclear for the gates at airports with a DGS; I will wait for rampers. I feel that the area could be better marked; but in the end I know that it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of the aircraft and passengers. I'm not trying to pass blame.  My hope is that this is a learning opportunity; not only for me; but for all involved. Hopefully this incident will improve ramp operations.
Cleared into gate; Auto park system active (make and correct model of aircraft indicated). Had to stop for all the bag carts cutting in front of us. After they stopped; I visually cleared the area. Noting the rampers and baggage carts on the right side of aircraft. Nothing appeared or stood out to be concerned about in the path of our aircraft. Captain followed auto park guidance while I the FO visually watched the wing. Somewhere between approx. halfway and parked the captain said something to me.; I diverted my gaze to him to answer and shortly after we felt a bump of sorts. I looked up to see a ramp personnel pointing at the right wing. After the gate agent brought the jet way up I immediately exited the aircraft and walked around. Approximately 6 inches to 1 foot (I had no way to accurately measure this) from the wingtip of the right wing I found a black mark on the leading edge of the wing and several scratches on the underside of the wing. There was a blue baggage cart hooked up to a tug. Looking from the back of the tug; the right rear corner black plastic/rubber bumper was damaged with pieces of the item scattered about the ground in close proximity of this area. The blue cart was approximately a few feet behind the training edge of the wing. I returned to the aircraft and notified the captain. Him and I went out and looked over the area. He called our chief pilot and we both took full responsibility for our actions in this incident; in a detailed oral debriefing with him. There are probably thousands of pictures and videos from various folks that will give a visual representation of incident; much better than I can describe it.It probably goes without saying the ramp here is horrible (as are most of them) and a major threat in and of itself. Lets break this apart from the j line to parking of the threats and observations. On the J line; the level of vehicles crossing in front of aircraft taxing in is astronomical; worse the high rate of speed. They usually look to see if there is a ramper if not away they go. I don't believe that they even can see the DGS system being active as they scurry about. Much less care about crossing in front of a taxing aircraft.We have been advised that this DGS system is approved for guidance into the gate. I agree that there are several caveats that are included in that direction. At no point did the captain nor I feel that any of those caveats were to be invoked. I will restate for the record; 'Nothing appeared or stood out to be concerned about in the path of our aircraft.' Several reasons for this; one there are no safety zone lines indicating a safe or unsafe condition on the right side of this gate; there is one on the right side but not the left. Most airports have this line CLEARLY defined to insure adequate visual clearance. At the top of the J line I am looking at an approximately 30-50 degree angle; approximately 50 - 150 feet or more to VISUALLY acquire a potential threat. Note we are looking at an angle to determine distance and we impacted 'Approximately 6 inches to 1 foot (I had no way to accurately measure this) from the wingtip of the right wing...' The airplane itself is a threat. The side window design was not thought out well. In order to see the wingtip you have to awkwardly position yourself to see it at another angle thru often a piece of distorted Plexiglas approximately 50 feet away. Not only that but you are also facing backwards with no forward vision; barely seeing the wingtip itself. Also very hard to approximate distance from. Looking backwards you won't see something coming at you.And the last one to address is the INADEQUATE markings on the pavement itself. Had there been markings similar to the other well pronounced ones this would have been immediately apparent and measures would have been instated to address the issue. I did not see anyone trying to get our attention that were working on the aircraft to our right. I'm sure that the ramp situation has been beat to death. It will take ALOT of MONEY and CLEAR THINKING to fix. The ramp I believe is the SINGLE biggest threat to the aviation community in terms of damage to aircraft; but we rarely will do anything about it. We have third party vendors; that get minimum wage; barely speak English; high turnover; and the list goes on. A ramp controller who only see us on the TV screen not real life. Multiple issues with in-range gate info; hazardous work flow environment with crossing a runway and asking about a gate info. The list quite frankly is endless. Yes I have brought up many of these issues prior to this only to be told 'We're having meeting and working on it.' The ramp environment needs a radical change. In our situation; I would like to know the rational for not painting a line on the pavement. It is painfully obvious that people who are making decisions are not the folks who have to operate in that realm. For any real change to work there MUST be pilot involvement. Not just the pilots who will say yes to everything but the ones who will stand up and call it what it is.Second Item; fix this program. It is SOLEY the reason for this report being submitted at this time instead of earlier. I initially wrote one of these and received error message. Frustration in using a portal or program is no way to encourage an open dialogue. Tried unsuccessfully several times to submit but it didn't seem to want to save my work or continue. It locked up several times.
EMB-145 flight crew reported a right wing tip contact with a bag cart while parking using the auto park system. Poor pavement markings in the gate area were reported to be a contributing factor.