Air carrier flight crew reported after pushback from the gate; the aircraft rolled forward uncommanded and ran into the tow bar.
Synopsis
Air carrier flight crew reported after pushback from the gate; the aircraft rolled forward uncommanded and ran into the tow bar.
Narrative
After pushback as we were starting engines; I got a call from the #1 FA advising me that a passenger was up and in the lav throwing up. I told her that we would slow down a little and to let me know how she felt after coming out of the lav. The engines were started and I got another call from the back saying the pax had thrown up violently and then came out of the lav and could barely stand and had not eaten all day. I told the push crew to stay hooked up; we may need to push back to the gate to let a passenger off. I had the FO talking to ramp to tell them we needed to return to a gate and the FO was on the third radio talking to operations to see if they had a gate for us and to try and coordinate paramedics to meet us. The #1 was calling to update me with pax condition. Operations had a gate we could taxi to on the other side of the airport. FO was relaying on radio #2 to ramp and I said to tug driver that we had a gate we could taxi to...I guess we can go ahead and disconnect. I got distracted with all the communications going on inside the cockpit and next thing I knew the tug driver was disconnecting the tug; The brakes were not set and the aircraft rolled forward and contacted the tow bar. I felt the contact and looked down the brakes were not set. I parked the brakes and asked the tug driver what was going on. He told me the brakes were not parked and the aircraft had run into the tow bar. I told him I had now set the brakes and he said he wouldn't move the tug until maintenance ok'd it. I then shut down both engines and called maintenance. I had never really definitely said cleared to disconnect and tug driver and never given me the 'set brakes' verbal. With all the chaos; that 'trigger' probably on both ends of the radio never got activated. Maintenance ok's us to taxi; and we returned to the gate where maintenance repaired a lug nut on the tow attachment and we were able to continue our flight to ZZZ1. Cause: All three pilots were involved in separate tasks and I was trying to coordinate all those tasks as well as communicate with the tug driver and #1 FA. Definitely a lack of communication due to too much communication. I would think a primary concern of a tug driver would be not to disconnect without seeing the brake light illuminating at the nose gear strut.
Second reporter narrative
During pushback and engine start the cabin FA called with a medical incident. The captain answered to see what the condition was. After that he instructed me as the FB to use the other radio to call operations and start discussing possible tow back to the gate or a new gate to go to. He instructed the FO to tell ramp control of a possible return. While I was discussing with operations they gave me a new gate to go to which I informed the captain. While discussing with ops the medical condition the captain had told ground personnel to disconnect because we were going to a new gate. During this time we felt the nose wheel make contact with the towbar at which point the captain realized the parking brake had not been set and proceeded to set it. Ground personnel informed us that maintenance needed to come out and inspect the nose wheel. After maintenance looked at the nose wheel they told the captain to go ahead to the new gate. We proceeded to the new gate and parked the aircraft.Cause: Multiple distractions with the medical and radio frequencies; better use of designating crew to mitigate distraction. Situational awareness; completing one task at a time to better focus on each one.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.