Mexican Standoff

I went to LaGuardia today to pick up a friend, and the plane was late, so I sat in a chair by the window that looked out on one of the alleys where planes move away from their gates, and taxi to the runways. The minute I sat down I noticed that something was amiss. There were two regional jets nose to nose! Planes don't really have reverse gears, although they can move backwards by using reverse thrust, but they rarely do that. I assumed what happened was that one plane was pushed back from its gate, and then another came in to the alley after landing, and couldn't get to a gate. This nose to nose is the result! After 10 minutes or so, a tug came out, and backed the airplane close to me, into a gate, then the inbound plane was able to pull into its gate. Puzzle solved!