Bae146s can back up using reverse thrust. I was on a SWISS flight that did this two weeks ago.

A former Eastern Airlines pilot used to work in our group, and I asked him about power-backs. He said that at EAL, one of the labor contracts specified that the wingwalkers all had to be mechanics, and that meant you needed 2-3 mechanics available every time you had to push back a plane using the tug. To avoid the labor costs of having to have a large number of mechanics at every airport, they adopted the power-back procedure, which did not require having mechanics as wingwalkers. In EAL's analysis, the labor cost savings exceeded the fuel costs as well as the potential FOD risks.

Sorry Travelsig but BAe146s are not even fitted with reverse thrust at all, never have been. They do have relatively large wheels compared to equivalent types because they are fitted with notably large brakes for pulling up on the short runways they use.

I would guess a tug was pushing you back at the same time as the engines were being started and that was the engine noise you were hearing.

Thanks for the update. I thought otherwise, but... always learn something new on FT!

They were doing it long before they started to build the Skylink. Really, as long as I can remember flying out of DFW on MD-80s (which is a pretty long time). Also, I'm pretty sure it stopped well before the Skylink opened up.

I think QX uses reverse thrust on its DH8s at SEA to push back too (if it's too tight to just wheel around).