Originally Posted by
mike current
Wing walkers are optional, only certain airlines employ them.
The headset man (other genders are available) and driver are there, but airlines are starting to trial and use remote controlled Mototoks, which only require one person to operate.
At Schiphol, Towbar operations are done with a driver and someone walking belongside with a headset.
Towbarless pushing, aka the lifting pushback trucks, only have a driver who does both the pushback and the talk out for engine start. This was also the case with both KLM and Easyjet in this incident.
So both pushbackdrivers would be monitoring an engine start as well. Also, the planes were almost directly behind each other, so it would be very hard to notice the other plane pushing back as well, as the fuselage will be blocking the pushbackdriver’s view.