It was common practice for aircraft cargo / baggage containers and their dolleys to be parked at the edge of the stand areas and in the clearway areas between stands. On this occasion, four container dolleys and one cargo container on its dolley were parked on the edge of Stand 422. The TBL driver and the headset operator had discussed the location of the container and dolleys, and had agreed they did not present a hazard to the pushback manoeuvre.
When ATC clearance for the pushback was received by the flight crew, only the TBL driver and headset operator were present, so there was a short delay to the departure before the third team member arrived. As he did so, he parked his vehicle in the interstand clearway area, made his way directly to an appropriate position to observe the left wing tip for the commencement of pushback and gave a ‘safe’ hand signal to the TBL driver.