Originally Posted by
HOVIS
It was a useless discussion at the start. WTF are you on about? The position of the fuel panel, jetway or air hookup points have nothing to do with which engine you leave running.
We don't do 'hot refuelling'.
We don't attempt to hook up the air with engines running. Ever!
Only under extreme circumstances (EG war zone) would you leave an engine running while offloading/embarking passengers.
For the record. Again. With a duff APU, one or more engines will be left running until the electrical power is connected. It/they are then shut down. The beacon goes off and then and only then are chocks, other ground equipment, servicing vehicles and the airbridge/steps allowed to approach the aircraft.
Respectfully. Maybe you don't in blighty. I fly the A320 in/out of the US and we have procedures for (de)fueling, (un)loading and (dis)embarking with an engine running. Granted, most are for (un?)expected failures of ground services (fly to some dodgy places), but all are considered part of the Normal OPS. For years we would not start the APU on taxi in, but leave #1 running until we had ground power. This would normally be about 3 minutes after L1 had been opened, and pax had started to leave.
Absolutely agree with you on the principle. Our SOP only allows nose chocks and ext power with the beacon on. Plenty of times I have gone below the wing for a chat with the ramp sup because the cargo door was opened with the beacon on.