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Exceeding The Tow Limits


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Pilot friend from AA tells me they are supposed to have a taxi qualified mechanic in the cockpit to ride the brakes when they tow from gate to gate but due to labor shortages didn’t and the plane got away from them. It was a nearly new aircraft. 

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When you exceed the tow limits, the tow bar snaps off because it gives way at the weakest point, the attachment.

 

I had an airplane come loose from the tug during push back. It was a MD-88 at IAD. As we pushed straight back the driver started to slow for the stop. I heard, "Captain! The to..............." then nothing. I looked out saw the tug moving away from me but I was not following. I looked at the tug and it had no tow bar attached and the pin sitting on the bumper. Concluding that the bar had never been pinned to the tug I then had the job of stopping an airplane rolling backwards without putting it on it's tail. Very, very sloooowwwly apply the brakes.

 

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