Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Object
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Maintenance Action
Human Factors; Procedure
During pushback; heard a loud noise sounding of metal banging/distressing. The pushback crew informed us the tow bar had not been disconnected and that they would disconnect and direct us to a turnout from that point. The captain informed me he had forgot to turn off the nose wheel steering. He then switched it off. We noticed the aircraft had a left turn tendency and needed constant right turn input corrections to maintain a straight taxi and thought something may have been damaged during the pushback. Contacted the company; Maintenance (Mx); Dispatch (Dx) and Operations (Ops) to coordinate a gate return. After the fact; Mx said they found damage; but what they described and showed us is something that is normal on all of our CRJ200s. Nothing appeared damaged to me although the torque links did seem somewhat loose.Comply with the standard company procedure flows and checklists.
CRJ-200 Captain forgot to turn off the Nose Gear Steering when the ground crew connected the tow bar and attempted to push back the aircraft from the gate.