2024-12 · NASA ASRS report 2198488
A321 flight crew reported while parked awaiting the jetbridge ramp personnel approached the aircraft and opened the cargo door while the engines were running.
The aircraft we were dispatched had an inoperative APU. The descent into ZZZ; my First Officer notified ZZZ ops that we were 20 to 25 min out with an inoperative APU and requested a start cart and jet Bridge driver present upon arrival. They complied and said they would be ready. Upon arrival; we pulled into the gate; and there was no Jet Bridge driver and no start cart. Marshall parked us. I set the parking brake and I waited with engines running for a jet [bridge] driver for approximately 2 to 3 minutes then I had the First Officer call operations who reminded them that we previously called requesting the services asked and that they were not present up upon our arrival.The jet [bridge] driver showed up and started pulling the jet bridge up to the aircraft. This is when the chime and ECAM doors page showed up indicating our forward cargo door had been opened while the engines were still running running; and beacon was on. At the same time; our number one flight attendant; who told me she never flies the 'number one' position got confused because we had parked; but had sat there so long with the seatbelt sign still on. She indicated that she thought they were waiting on her to make the call to disarm doors to turn It off. Yet; this was all due to the delay waiting on the jet bridge driver; and she went ahead and made the disarm all call announcement; seat belt sign still on; and thought because the door hadn't opened up yet they were waiting on her so she disarmed the door and opened the L1 door prior to the ramp personnel still plugging in external power while the engines were running.I personally stopped in and talked to chief pilot about the incident; told him this is the third time this month this has happened with cargo doors being opened with engines and beacons still on; and the second report I'm sending in. We discussed the safety issue with this; and he requested again another report and an [another] report; which I will be filling out. These inoperative APU aircraft; although legal to fly per the MEL are causing a lot of issues resulting in non-standard operations that are non-compliant with policy and procedures. We as the flight crew did everything we could to try to preemptively notify ZZZ operations ahead of time to let them know we were inbound with an inoperative APU so that we could have the station ready upon our arrival. As it was; they were not ready; and ramp personnel; broke their policy and procedures; and started to unload the aircraft with the number one and number two engines still turning; beacon on; all while we were waiting for a jet bridge driver to bring up the jet bridge so they could plug in external power; so we could finally shut down. We came very close to potentially killing somebody because people aren't following policy and procedures.I notified ZZZ operations and they sent the Ops Manager down. We had the discussion; and she was going to talk to the flightline personnel. Not sure what impact this will have; but this is a serious breach in safety; policy and procedures; and it needs to be addressed systemwide. Compounding intentional noncompliance by ramp personnel. Inoperative APU issues. Fix the APU's and many of these other issues will not happen. But we also need to have training in place so that our ramp personnel quit approaching the aircraft with the beacon on in the engines running. Make sure all flight attendants are trained in the number one position during these non-normal situations.
Our airplane had the APU on MEL. The Captain briefed that we would not single engine taxi so that we would have fire suppression redundancy. We called ZZZ ops 20 minutes out to let them know. We arrived at the gate but no gate agent was present; so we could not hook up ground power; and had to keep the engines running. After a wait of 3-4 minutes the agent arrived and the jet bridge positioned. As external power was being applied; we got an ECAM that the forward cargo door was open. At this point both engines were still running and the beacon was on. The Captain quickly shut down the engines. Thankfully no injuries occurred; but ground personnel this close to a running engine could have very easily resulted in a fatality and has in the past.Ramp personnel are so worried about meeting the metrics set by management for opening doors and off loading bags that they disregard their own safety and company policies. We have had two ramp fatalities in the last two years because Ramper workers get too close to operating engines. I'm afraid this will happen again if something doesn't change.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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