Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Troubleshooting; Communication Breakdown; Human-Machine Interface; Distraction
Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Human Factors
A ramp person had come up and asked that we use hand signals for pushback as the comm'(communication headset) were not working. Once we were ready to push there was another ramper on the tug. The Captain gave the signal that the brake was released and we were cleared to push. She didn't see the hand signals the first time so the Captain gave the signal again. The tug driver; then in a rush began pushing. About 20 feet into the push the aircraft jolted and the push came to a stop. At this point there was no communication from the ground crew to cockpit until the supervisors came out and were able to connect the ground comm's. After watching the wing walker walk to the right (he was on the left wing) wing and appear upset; I assumed we had been pushed into something on the right wing; but we could not see anything. At this point I contacted ops and told them we suspected we just got pushed into something and we needed a manager. At the same time the Captain called the flight attendant to see if he could see anything. The flight attendant asked passengers if they saw anything. Which they said they saw a tug drive away; but not actually make contact with us. A manager eventually came out and connected out ground comm's and had informed us that we had been pushed into a tug and that the right wingtip and aileron had been damaged and that we needed to call maintenance to come out and pull us back into the gate. Maintenance showed up and took pictures along with ground ops the document the event. Eventually maintenance backed us into the gate and we deboarded. All passengers were fine besides the delay that was incurred.The aircraft jolted and came to stop. We assumed we either hit something or the tow bar broke loose.Lack of communication between the wing walker and tug driver. From my understanding the wing walker had signaled the tug driver not to push.We came to a immediate stop and contacted operations for further help.Proper communication between tug driver and wing walker. Radio comm's with tug driver could had also helped the situation.
EMB-145 flight crew reported pushback crew pushed aircraft off the gate into a tug damaging right wing area.