Widebody; Low Wing; 3 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors
After visually clearing the aircraft gate silhouette; the Captain started his right turn into gate. A tug with several dollies loaded with ULDs was observed penetrating the silhouette at a high rate of speed from the gate area. Captain and FO both stepped on the brakes to emergency stop the aircraft to avoid hitting the tug. The tug driver locked up his brakes; jack-knifing the tug sideways and skidding over considerable distance to stop. Tug driver then drove off like nothing had happened.Since the aircraft nose wheel was in a full right turn when the aircraft emergency stop occurred and was suspected of having sustained heavy side loading; crew elected to shut down engines and await a maintenance inspection on the gear before being towed the remaining distance into the gate. Tow in was uneventful. Crew made appropriate AML write-ups; debriefed crew actions as appropriate and safe; then departed aircraft. Ramp manager met with crew upon block in to advise the tug driver had been suspended.
We were directed to park our aircraft in Gate X. This gate is a power-in gate (though currently most of the gates in the courtyard are tow-in). Because the gate is parallel and adjacent to the taxiway a sharp 180 degree turn is required to turn into the gate from the taxiway. With a medium gross weight of around 325K; this parking maneuver works best with at least 8-10 kts of momentum as the turn is initiated and some differential engine thrust. The Marshaller was available as we approached abeam our parking spot on taxiway S. We initiated the 180 turn without having to stop. About one third of the way thru the turn-in with the nosewheel at a full 70 degree right deflection; I sensed in my left peripheral vision a fast movement [and] quickly realized that a tug pulling 2 or 3 heavy cans was shooting thru an open gap between other cans staged in the holding area between our parking silhouette and the aircraft to our immediate left. This tug was travelling at high speed and pointed right at our nosewheel. I initiated an emergency stop of the A/C which locked up all four tires on our left gear truck and caused a severe side torque on our nosewheel that twisted the nose of the aircraft enough to cause our closed/locked/armed right A/C entry door to break open (daylight showing between the door and A/C frame). This caused an immediate master caution and door open indication! The tug driver finally looked up and slammed on his brakes. This caused the tug to jackknife violently; but averted a collision with our aircraft nose. The driver came out of his seat; but had a strong enough grip on the steering wheel not to be ejected out of the tug! Because of possible/probable damage to the nosewheel structure; I shut down the engines and had MX tow the aircraft into the parking spot. After MX destressed the A/C; the aircraft entry door returned to a more normal position. MX performed a door check and a severe side load 'A' check on the nosewheel structure. The entry door mechanism worked normally; and they could not detect any damage to the nosewheel from what they could see with an 'A' check. Of course; that check may be insufficient to detect possible internal stress fractures that may have occurred to the nosewheel strut and bracing during this event. If these stress fractures have occurred; at some point in the future a structural failure of the nosewheel could occur with obvious dire consequences! I suspect a cell phone may have been involved.
A large Widebody cargo aircrew reported making an emergency stop to avoid being struck by a ground vehicle while turning into the gate.