Originally Posted by
snackysmores
If he knew how to start the engines, take them out of feather, take off the gust lock etc. I can't imagine he wouldn't know to release the parking brake....He pushed the plane back himselfm which means he had to release the parking brake to hook it up, push it, reset parking brake, and disconnect.
At idle thrust the Q400 actually does a pretty good job backing up. You can also swing the nose gear 120 deg. Not sure how he got the plane moving, but it's possible he didn't need a tug.