Originally Posted by
Octane
Just trying to understand what is to be gained by leaving a sick engine running at idle for hours. Apologies if it's a daft question...
On a general point one consideration certainly on a twin is if the "sick" engine is still capable in extremis of producing useable thrust if needed then it might be sensible to leave it running......as long as procedures don't say otherwise.
However in the context of this incident they had more than a slightly "sick" engine...certainly as I read the report if the crew had gone through the Fuel Disagree checklist fully and correctly they would have been led onwards into actioning the Fuel
Leak checklist, at which point they hopefully would have realised that the engine was more than just slightly "sick". The QRH would have been telling the crew they had an engine Fuel Leak and that they needed to shut it down, not leave it at idle...but for reasons various they never got as far as the Fuel Leak checklist (see my previous comment about the 777 checklist).