A C208 PLT; TAXIING FOR TKOF AT MHT; HAD A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH AN ACFT PUSHING OFF THE GATE.
Synopsis
A C208 PLT; TAXIING FOR TKOF AT MHT; HAD A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH AN ACFT PUSHING OFF THE GATE.
Narrative
UPON RECEIVING MY TAXI CLRNC TO RWY 6 FROM THE RAMP AREA; I TURNED L ONTO TXWY M AND HELD CTRLINE ON THE GREEN IN PAVEMENT TXWY LIGHTS. I WAS ABEAM TERMINAL WHEN I WAS SUDDENLY HIT BY JETBLAST. I LOOKED ALL AROUND TO DETERMINE THE SOURCE; AS IT HAD ONLY A SLIGHT DRIVING FORCE FROM MY R. UPON RETURNING MY SCAN FORWARD; I SAW A WING HANGING JUST IN FRONT OF ME AND THE TAIL SECTION OF ACFT AT MY 1:30 O'CLOCK POS. THE WING EXTENDED TO; OR BEYOND; THE TXWY CTRLINE AND WAS JUST VISIBLE IN MY TAXI LIGHTS. THE FUSELAGE WAS ROUGHLY POSITIONED PARALLEL AND OVER THE TXWY EDGE. I IMMEDIATELY APPLIED BRAKES AND AVOIDED IMPACT; WHICH WOULD HAVE OCCURRED ABOUT 2/3 OUTBOARD ON THE ACFT'S WING WITH THE PROP AND PROBABLY A L REAR STABILIZER IMPACT WITH MY R WING. LCL TIME WAS XA43 AND CONDITIONS WERE FAIR ON THE GND; BUT DARKNESS PREVAILED. THE GREEN TXWY IN-PAVEMENT LIGHTS WERE DOMINANT OVER MY TAXI LIGHTS (1 ON EACH WING). THE ACFT WAS BTWN MY ACFT AND THE LIGHTED TERMINAL. I ONLY RECALL SEEING POS LIGHTS ON THE ACFT. AS I CAME TO A STOP. THERE WAS A GND CREW OF 3 OR MORE TO THE STARBOARD OF THE ACFT; AND I BELIEVE THAT THEY HAD PUSHED BACK THE ACFT FROM THE GATE AND IT HAD BEEN STARTED WHILE IN THE POS RPTED ABOVE ON THE MOVEMENT AREA! THIS PORTION OF TXWY M IS NOT VISIBLE FROM THE TWR. I INFORMED GND CTL THAT AN ACFT WAS ON THE TXWY IN FRONT OF ME. REPLY WAS; 'I GUESS YOU'LL HAVE TO FOLLOW HIM THEN.' MY REPLY WAS THAT HE WAS JUST IN FRONT OF ME AND THAT HE WOULD NEED TO APPLY PWR VERY CAREFULLY. THE ACFT THEN RPTED HE WAS READY TO TAXI. I RPTED TO GND THAT I WAS ABOUT 2 SECONDS FROM IMPACTING THE OTHER ACFT. TXWY TRANSGRESSION; DARKNESS; AND A THIN WING XSECTION CONTRIBUTED. ALSO; THE POS OF THE FUSELAGE IN AN APPROX POS BEHIND MY COMPASS AND WINDSHIELD CTR STRIP OBSCURED THE MOST VISIBLE PORTION OF THE ACFT. I WAS LOOKING RIGHT AT HIM; BUT DIDN'T SEE HIM UNTIL THE END.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.