Date: 201201
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: SEA.Airport, WA
Flight conditions: IMC
Weather elements / visibility: Icing
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: A320
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Taxi
ATC / advisory: Ramp SEA
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Pilot Not Flying; First Officer
Human factors: Workload; Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Second reporter function: Pilot Flying; Captain
Anomaly: Conflict Ground Conflict; Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Taxi
Result: Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Equipment / Tooling; Company Policy; Procedure; Weather
Primary problem: Ambiguous

Narrative: We were in Seattle and needed to get de-iced. The ramp personnel were having difficulty with the headset and were unable to communicate with us. We used the Operations frequency to coordinate the push for de-ice and were pushed just slightly off the gate with clearance from Seattle Ramp. The Captain was using hand signals and when the de-icing was complete the ground crew requested us to release brakes and we did. They began to push us further back and we had not gotten further clearance from Seattle Ramp. As we were pushing; I called Ramp and told them our ground crew had begun to push us back and we weren't able to communicate with them. Ramp said it was okay but were not happy that we started pushing without further clearance. In addition we never got a clear to start engines and had to go through Operations to get the ground crew back out to clear us to start engines.


Second narrative: The pushback crew was having trouble communicating with us on their headset. We were able to communicate this to the pushback crew and that the brakes were released. Pushback commenced. When we stopped we couldn't communicate anymore. Concerned they may move the tug more; we did not set the brakes. We called Operations and told them we couldn't communicate with the pushback crew. Operations had no way of communicating with them either. We communicated with the deice crew (on a deice frequency) that we were configured for deicing before the push. Deicing began with the brakes off while we were hooked up to the tug. When finished; the deice crew called and gave us the deice information. At the same time; the pushback crew appeared and gave us the 'Set Brakes' signal - we did. Within a few seconds he came back and gave us the 'Release Brakes' signal - we did. We had no idea what was happening. The airplane started to push back further on the ramp without clearance from SEA Ramp. Another aircraft was starting to push next door at the same time but stopped. We told Ramp we could not communicate with the pushback crew. When the airplane stopped we got the 'Brakes Set' signal - we did. They disconnected and gave us the 'Aircraft Clear' signal. We never got the 'Cleared to Start Engines' signal so we didn't flash the taxi light. They just walked away anyway while the tug was backing into the gate. We were flashing our taxi light but they never looked back. We called Operations and told them we would not start engines unless we got a verbal from the pushback crew via Operations. Eventually someone came back out and gave us the 'Cleared to Start Engines signal'. This whole time we were blocking the aircraft next door from pushing. SEA Ramp called Operations on the phone to let them know what happened. Numerous pushback SOP violations due to intermittent headset that became inoperative.


Synopsis: An A320 Ground Crew headset became inoperative during pushback at SEA but the Ground Crew continued pushback after deicing without Ramp or flight crew clearance and blocked another aircraft.