Date: 201911
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Flight conditions: VMC
Aircraft: B767-300 and 300 ER
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: None
Flight phase: Parked
Aircraft component: Nose Gear
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Vehicle Driver
Human factors: Time Pressure; Communication Breakdown
Anomaly: Ground Event / Encounter Vehicle
Detector: Person Ground Personnel
When detected: Aircraft In Service At Gate
Result: Aircraft Aircraft Damaged
Contributing factors: Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: Myself and my partner attached to the Move Team at ZZZ; arrived at [gate]; assigned to tow a B767 to the [company] Maintenance hangar. My partner went upstairs to prepare the aircraft to move. My tasks as driver included disconnecting the GPU; connecting the Supertug to the nose gear; and hooking up the Supertug GPU to power the aircraft. During this time; my partner would essentially be waiting for me to complete these tasks; putting some time pressure on me.When I was attempting to position the Supertug to the aircraft; it should have been apparent to me that there was just barely enough room between the nose gear and the gate pushback tractor. I had to perform multiple maneuvers to shimmy the unit into position; pulling back and forth and constantly turning. I had to input significant concentration to do this; while also minding the stresses put on the steering and transmission. As I was almost aligned; my partner came back to ground level; probably impatient as many on the Move Team seem to me to be. He went to a position at the corner of the unit to attempt to give me guidance for the tight clearance. As I was backing up and turning sharply in what I thought would put the Supertug in a good final approach position; his OK signal turned instantly to a grimace of dismay and an attempt to stop me. I was unable to react quickly enough; and in all likelihood the inside corner of the left arm of the unit contacted the nose gear. Thankfully; this part of the unit was engineered with fiberglass rather than metal; which collapsed and absorbed much of the force of the contact. Adding to this conclusion is that I did not observe the plane quake or shake.Mitigating factors from my perspective:There was only 8 ft. or so of total clearance front and back of the unit between the nose gear and gate assigned pushback; which should have been moved out of the way first.My partner came down to see what was going on at the most critical time of the positioning; likely breaking my concentration.The reverse lights on this unit; when the control console has been rotated to face aft; are also the primary headlights when driving forward. They are therefore overly bright; and my sight line was obscured by the reflection off the large white painted surface of the pushback behind me; on the window in front of me. Also the lights to illuminate the area I was focused on; the cradle light and rear spot lights; are controlled by a single switch; and cannot be activated independently. On all other Supertugs in the fleet at ZZZ; each of these lights has its own switch.Supertug XX is a big piece of equipment; dimensionally larger than a main battle tank. It takes skill and focus; but also practice to operate successfully. The one thing that cannot be guaranteed is adequate practice; as we rotate through the equipment fleet and therefore only operate this unit a couple of times a month; not enough in my opinion to acquire proficiency; only enough to maintain it; moot because we have not acquired it.Even though there were multiple members of the Move Team at ZZZ on the field who were idle at and before the time of this incident; myself and partner were carrying out this move without any additional assistance; as we also had on the move immediately prior to this one.




Synopsis: Supertug driver reported that a communication breakdown resulted in a collision with an aircraft nosewheel.