Narrative:

We stopped short of the gate; and shut the engines down per the request of the ground crew. The APU was started when clear of the runway; and was operating normally. As the ground crew was finishing and getting ready to tow the aircraft; the APU shutdown; leaving the aircraft on battery power only. At that time I noticed a ground crewman quickly walking away from the nose gear area of the aircraft towards the terminal. I opened my side window to try and get his attention; but he wouldn't look back. We advised the flight attendants and the passengers of the situation. I told the ground crewman on the headset of our situation; and to continue towing us into the gate. We tried to restart the APU; but it wouldn't start. Up till now this seemed like nothing more than an APU fault leading to an auto shutdown. But; at the gate; we noticed a status message: APU remote shutdown. I want to believe a ground worker would not do something deliberate like shutting down the APU on purpose from the remote station on the nose gear. I cannot be sure that the ground crewman quickly walking away from the plane actually did that; but it is very suspicious. I talked to the mechanic that met the flight and told him about what happened and the status message. He agreed with our conclusion that the switch at the remote station must have been pressed. If this kind of thing starts to be a trend; it could lead to problems. I have no positive evidence; but I did want to make this incident known in case you start to see a trend.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B777's APU Remote Shutdown switch was apparently activated by a Ground Crew member as the aircraft was about to be towed into the gate. The ground person left the aircraft's immediate area during the tow and the crew could not start the APU.

Narrative: We stopped short of the gate; and shut the engines down per the request of the Ground Crew. The APU was started when clear of the runway; and was operating normally. As the Ground Crew was finishing and getting ready to tow the aircraft; the APU shutdown; leaving the aircraft on battery power only. At that time I noticed a Ground Crewman quickly walking away from the nose gear area of the aircraft towards the terminal. I opened my side window to try and get his attention; but he wouldn't look back. We advised the flight attendants and the passengers of the situation. I told the Ground Crewman on the headset of our situation; and to continue towing us into the gate. We tried to restart the APU; but it wouldn't start. Up till now this seemed like nothing more than an APU Fault leading to an Auto Shutdown. But; at the gate; we noticed a Status Message: APU REMOTE SHUTDOWN. I want to believe a Ground Worker would not do something deliberate like shutting down the APU on purpose from the remote station on the nose gear. I cannot be sure that the Ground Crewman quickly walking away from the plane actually did that; but it is very suspicious. I talked to the Mechanic that met the flight and told him about what happened and the status message. He agreed with our conclusion that the switch at the remote station must have been pressed. If this kind of thing starts to be a trend; it could lead to problems. I have no positive evidence; but I did want to make this incident known in case you start to see a trend.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.