Narrative:

We were dispatched with APU inoperative. After arriving at the gate in ord; we informed the ramp that we needed power due to APU being inoperative. After gate arrival we shut down the right engine and kept the left engine running due to no power being provided to the aircraft. Again called ramp; flashed the lights and finally someone hooked up the gpu cord to the plane but it did not work. After most of the passengers had deplaned the lavatory truck guy came to the flight deck and told me that the catering guy was parked at the back of the aircraft and getting ready to open the galley door. I immediately shut down the left engine; jumped up to make sure he was ok and watched him open the aft galley door approximately 20 seconds after I shut the engine down. After talking with the caterer; he told me that someone in the tower told him it was ok to mate up to the aircraft with the beacon and the left engine running; (the left engine is directly behind the left galley door) and service the galley.I do not know what type of training these personnel go through but nobody should start servicing the aircraft with the beacon on with engines running. This situation was moments from possible loss of life or major injury to the caterer and major damage to the aircraft engine. I requested a ramp supervisor to come to the aircraft and he was more concerned about the electric and getting the aircraft ready to board rather than what just happened.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD80 Captain reported catering personnel approached the left galley door while the aircraft beacon was on and the left engine was still running at ORD.

Narrative: We were dispatched with APU inoperative. After arriving at the gate in ORD; we informed the ramp that we needed power due to APU being inoperative. After gate arrival we shut down the right engine and kept the left engine running due to no power being provided to the aircraft. Again called ramp; flashed the lights and finally someone hooked up the GPU cord to the plane but it did not work. After most of the passengers had deplaned the lavatory truck guy came to the flight deck and told me that the Catering guy was parked at the back of the aircraft and getting ready to open the galley door. I immediately shut down the left engine; jumped up to make sure he was OK and watched him open the aft galley door approximately 20 seconds after I shut the engine down. After talking with the caterer; he told me that someone in the Tower told him it was OK to mate up to the aircraft with the beacon and the left engine running; (the left engine is directly behind the left galley door) and service the galley.I do not know what type of training these personnel go through but nobody should start servicing the aircraft with the beacon on with engines running. This situation was moments from possible loss of life or major injury to the Caterer and major damage to the aircraft engine. I requested a Ramp Supervisor to come to the aircraft and he was more concerned about the electric and getting the aircraft ready to board rather than what just happened.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.