2011-06 · NASA ASRS report 952979
After the B757-200 flight crew shut down the right engine to the failure of the pneumatic starter to disengage; the tug driver advised it appeared to be on fire. When the fire persisted the flight crew discharged the fire extinguisher bottle and called for CFR assistance.
During engine start the right engine appeared to start normally and stabilize. The maximum start red EGT line disappeared and there were no EICAS messages. As we were starting the left engine; No. 2 spooled up slower than it should have and max motoring was approximately 10%. The pneumatic duct pressure was also low. We quickly checked EICAS again and looked for the source of our low pneumatic duct pressure. Then the captain noticed that the right engine start selector was still in ground. He set the selector to AUTO and the left engine immediately began to spool up normally. We continued the start on the left engine. Before the left engine stabilized; the mechanic stated that our right engine was on fire. The captain immediately shut down the right engine. From the tone of the mechanics voice; and since we had just dealt with the starter malfunction; I felt there probably was a fire in the accessory portion of the engine compartment. The mechanic then stated that there were still flames coming out of the right engine. I immediately requested that the tower (via Ground Control) send the fire department to our aircraft in case the fire continued to burn. The captain discharged the fire extinguisher bottle by rotating the engine fire switch. I believe this was the conservative action in this case. The mechanic stated that it appeared the flames were out. The fire department arrived at the aircraft approximately 4-5 minutes from notification and confirmed that the fire was out.
I noticed the right engine start switch was still selected to start. So; at this point; both start switches were in the 'ground' start position. I turned the right engine start switch back to auto and duct pressure returned to normal. The left engine accelerated normally and the fuel switch was set to 'run.' Left engine completed start normally. About this time; mechanic informed us of fire/flames from right engine. There was no fire warning or messages in cockpit. Communications become complicated when trying to talk and listen to 4 sources at once. (First Officer; Mechanic; Ground Control; fire/rescue) I felt the Mechanic did a great job but probably felt out of the loop since he had nothing; but visual reference to the event and was not able to hear the other conversations. I was surprised that neither of us noticed that the right engine start switch had not automatically returned to the ground (off) position. During the entire sequence we did not receive any cautions or warnings and there was no EGT exceedance.
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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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