Air carrier first officer reported a ramp safety issue where the ground crew did not know which engi...

Narrative:

We received an aircraft that had an inoperative APU. During my walk around; I told the ramper that we needed an air start cart to start the number one engine at the gate. He seemed very confused as to what I was asking. I explained what the high pressure air start cart is and that we would be starting the number one engine at the gate. He asked which one that was and as I was standing next to the engine; I pointed at it. He said he would inform his supervisor. Several times after that we had to coordinate with operations over the radio to hook up the air conditioning system and verifying that they did have an air start cart. We were waiting with checklists complete when the captain asked on the radio if they were ready. They replied that they were waiting for us. The captain told them to start the cart and we would be starting the number one engine. The ramper acknowledged and we verified on the ECAM page that we had pressure. I started the sequence to begin engine 1 and was watching for N2 rotation; etc. At about 30% N2 rotation the ramper came on the headset and asked 'which one is the number 1 engine?' the captain told him 'your right my left; the one next to the jetway.' the ramper then stated that they had the cart in front of the engine and there were people on that side. I immediately aborted the start sequence with I believe 5% N1 rotation. The ramp then placed the cart on the other side and stayed away from the engine.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier First Officer reported a ramp safety issue where the ground crew did not know which engine was Number 1 and the air start cart was placed in front of the engine to be started.

Narrative: We received an aircraft that had an inoperative APU. During my walk around; I told the ramper that we needed an air start cart to start the number one engine at the gate. He seemed very confused as to what I was asking. I explained what the high pressure air start cart is and that we would be starting the number one engine at the gate. He asked which one that was and as I was standing next to the engine; I pointed at it. He said he would inform his supervisor. Several times after that we had to coordinate with operations over the radio to hook up the air conditioning system and verifying that they did have an air start cart. We were waiting with checklists complete when the Captain asked on the radio if they were ready. They replied that they were waiting for us. The Captain told them to start the cart and we would be starting the number one engine. The ramper acknowledged and we verified on the ECAM page that we had pressure. I started the sequence to begin Engine 1 and was watching for N2 rotation; etc. At about 30% N2 rotation the ramper came on the headset and asked 'which one is the number 1 engine?' The Captain told him 'your right my left; the one next to the jetway.' The ramper then stated that they had the cart IN FRONT of the engine and there were people on that side. I immediately aborted the start sequence with I believe 5% N1 rotation. The ramp then placed the cart on the other side and stayed away from the engine.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1540582
Time
Date	201805
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ABQ.Airport
State Reference	NM
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Type 1721
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Air carrier first officer reported a ramp safety issue where the ground crew did not know which engine was number 1 and the air start cart was placed in front of the engine to be started.