Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Procedure; Equipment / Tooling
We were ready to push off the gate and the tug driver attempted to contact us via his headset. The headset he was using was intermittent. With lots of static and some squealing. He seemed distressed about the improperly working headset and seemed concerned about pushing as soon as possible. Apparently there was another aircraft in range for the gate. Once communications were established. We completed the before start checklist and called ramp for pushback clearance. Ramp cleared us to push back to spot 14. I instructed the tug driver to push back using standard communication. 'Cockpit to ground brake released cleared to push spot 14'. He responded with some short statement like roger. A few moments later the aircraft began to move backward from the gate. Everything appeared normal. Then there was some broken static and voice on the headset. Followed by the tug driver screaming into the head set 'set brakes!!! Set brakes!!!! Stop!!!!' I immediately applied aggressive braking to stop the aircraft and set the parking brake. The tug driver told me 'the tow bar was faulty'. I forced him to go get a properly functioning headset which he did. That only took a few minutes. After asking him to clearly explain what happened. I discovered the tow bar was not properly secured to the nose gear. The aircraft had been allowed to roll backwards unattached to the tow bar and tug. I insured no one on the ground had been run over and the First Officer communicated with the ramp controller to insure we did not strike any vehicles.I contacted the cabin crew to see if everyone was ok. One of the Flight Attendants had been thrown to the floor when I stopped the aircraft. She had hit her head on an armrest and was applying ice to it. Otherwise she was ok and no one else was hurt. The tug driver and operations supervisor told me this had happened once before recently and were trying to talk me into re-attaching the tow bar and pushing back. After a few moments to reflect. We decided to call the Dispatcher and get them involved in the decision process. They conferred with Maintenance Control and we collectively decided to return to the gate. Have the landing gear inspected by maintenance and insure that the tow bar and crew were operational and safe for another pushback attempt. Once these actions were completed we pushed back and continued the flight without further incident. There needs to be a shift in focus in our company. It seems clear to me that the overwhelming pressure to push on time has effectively forced the ground personnel and operations leaders into making mistakes that can easily become serious injuries. We need to train our personnel to put safety above all else. Including on time performance.
A320 Captain reported a break away from the tow bar during push back; requiring the aircraft to be stopped abruptly when the tug driver called for the brakes to be set; with the aircraft in motion.