South African Pushback Fail [HD]

The very first push I ever did was a 747-200 at northwest airlines in the late 90s and it was an open tug, I was almost wetting my pants for misjudging the angle but my trainer at the times said if you think something is wrong stop gently and reset and observe what you did wrong and correct it, nobody is pushing you son remember you are in control. I used this method to train others on the ramp now and it really is a great concept to use especially for new rampies.

I was expecting an exceeded turn radius to snap the shear pin on the tow bar. He didn't do too bad for the first solo push. My first one was pretty humbling, but countless pushbacks later I'm better at parking a 747 than my own car.

He almost towed them to their destination.

My first push back was on a Continental Airlines MD80 25 years ago. As the tug driver, ALWAYS confirm that the proper hydraulics bypass pin was installed on the nose gear. The supervisor put a B737 pin in the nose gear, I didn't check it prior to push and when I began the pushback and started to turn, the nose gear would not turn and the tow bar sheer pin snapped and it sounded like an explosion. Thankfully, the sheer pin did its job, the supervisor disconnected the bar and bypass pin from the nose gear and told the captain what happened. Captain reengaged nose wheel steering, confirmed full movement of the gear, determined all was OK and he was far enough from the gate to taxi and off to Newark he went. That was my first lesson in the concept of the bypass pin.

Quick question from someone not involved with ramp ops: Why didn't the headset crew say something? They can stop the PB at any moment, can't they? They are supposed to be the safety guard here, right?

I love the way the guy holding the cable (you can see his shadow for first 1½ mins) makes it look like he's walking the plane on a leash, like a giant dog!

Reminds me of the stuff that went on when I worked the ramp a long time ago, back when the earth first cooled. Good god, nothing ever changes does it.

I love this one....picturing passengers feeling like they are being pushed around like an upright vacuum cleaner😀....back and forth, side to side!

He did pretty good. Captain told me my first time pushing was better than his first landing... lol

Was the mechanical problems due to the leaking fluids at 2:00 or was it other problems

Hi Rubin, great video to highlight the difficulties of driving a tug, especially one that with a double ‘pivots’ at the nose gear and the towbar end at the tug. Often, many managers will just expect the drivers to do a ‘good job’ like driving a car without understanding the challenges. I assume you are an expert with these airplane tugs?

I work as line at my local airport, we mainly get general aviation aircrafts, lots of gulfstreams, king airs, globals and challengers. Some Falcons here and there. We mainly use the lectro which is WAY more easier than using tow bars. So when i first had to tow using the bar and tug, holy crap was that a game changer. So i give your friend props even with his mess-up. Pilot must have been like "WTF am i doing off center?" lol

Frightening push for sure. I've trained people on pushing for about three years now. Some are good though, and almost immediately get a grasp on it, but then some people make you pray for your life. And then you have those who are about to wreck the gear, so you have to pull the wheel from them to correct it quickly and they fight you on it. Good times

Airports here in New Zealand, mainly Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown, use a mobile unit operated by a remote device which hooks up to the main gear and the pilots use their nosewheel steering to make the turns while the remote unit tows the aircraft backwards from the gate.  Cool thing to watch.

I am having a query. Who controls the direction of plane while push back. By plane pilot or by the Puch back vehicle

Yeah. One time I was on a KLM MD-11 and our plane was pushing back in San Francisco and clearly it was using a towbar and the driver was new [like this one], and we nearly collided with another plane. I feel sorry for your friend and I hope he gained more experience in the past 13 months. Once again, great video as well. :)

I also thought this happened in S.A since of course I did not read the description, but then I saw your mention of the Mobile Lounges not being able to go by because of the wings and saw the wheels go by when the plane moved forward and then figured it was my home international airport, So Dulles is the only airport in the world to have those huge buses? Anyway, that was an eventful day.

Thanks for watching! Yea the towless tugs are very rare at Dulles and I believe only United has one. So we all have to deal with the bar. I always wanted to try out a towless pushback though!

Awwww how this brings back memories of working out on the ramp.......... Gotta love rookie pushback drivers! :o)

I had to push onto a taxiway with no center line daily. First time I thought I nailed it until they disconnected the tow bar and I had a chance to actually look at the plane with the main gear almost touching the grass. SMH