Challenger CL600 First Officer reported aircraft ran into a baggage cart while parking at their gate.
Synopsis
Challenger CL600 First Officer reported aircraft ran into a baggage cart while parking at their gate.
Narrative
We pulled into the X gate alleyway and were told by Ramp Control to hold abeam YXX to wait for the alley to clear so we could get to our gate XXX. Once we were cleared into the gate by ramp control; we turned in and saw the self park device was active and ramp crew was waiting for us by the gate and along the left side of the parking area. Off the right side; a baggage cart behind gates XXY and XXZ was being driven towards us quickly as we were pulling in; so our focus was on that in that moment. The baggage cart ended up turning away and we returned our focus on our gate XXX. Regretfully; this distraction along with the presence of ground crew and the self parking device allowed us to make a mistake and miss another ground cart that was parked at XXZ and encroaching into our parking area. When the strike happened we felt the airplane jostle and the Captain brought the plane to a stop. My initial thought was the wheel chocks were put too close to the centerline and we might have grazed one with the nose gear but the Captain looked to the ramp crew for an indication anything was wrong and said he didn't have any reaction. This lack of reaction from ramp personnel combined with the self parking device not indicating any obstruction; we thought there might have a crack or a rut in the pavement that we'd taxied over since that isn't uncommon when parking; and being about 5 feet short of the gate according to the self park device; the Captain began adding power to get us out of this assumed rut which is when I saw ramp personnel on the right side of the aircraft (who I assume ran over from gate XXZ) waving us down telling us to stop.I told the Captain; he came to a complete stop; and I looked to where the ramp personnel was pointing and saw we had struck the cart we had neglected to notice earlier. The captain shut down the engines; we opened the door and connected the bridge; unloaded the passengers and the Captain went outside to inspect the plane and the damage. Fortunately no one was hurt to the best of my knowledge but I regret that someone could have been due to my mistake.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.