Narrative:

Twice in the past month I have brought terminating aircraft into this airport with the APU deferred; both times have been for the code share. Both times; we have called in range and requested a gpu. Both times the operations agent has told us that a gpu and air cart are unavailable and maintenance is taking the aircraft; so I should leave an engine running. Both times I have told the operations agent that we are not permitted to service the aircraft with an engine running and we will be shutting down the aircraft upon arrival. Both times I've been told something to the effect of 'we'll contact the maintenance supervisor; but they're not going to like it; our air cart is inoperative and they'll have no way of starting the engines.' both times we have arrived at the gate; no gpu or air cart available and we've been forced to begin deplaning with the #2 engine running. Both times the ground crew began to unload the bags with the beacon still on; forcing me to shut down the running engine without any other power available. Both times I have talked to the mechanics meeting the aircraft and they don't understand why I'm unable to hand the airplane over to them with the engine running.concerning the maintenance crews: I have no doubt that they are qualified to sit in the cockpit and monitor a running engine while the flight crew leaves the aircraft. However; I don't feel comfortable completing all of my duties except the 'shutdown check'. If it is really operationally necessary for maintenance to do a 'hot swap' so they can better do their jobs; we'd have a procedure in place for it. Concerning operations: I have no doubt that the air cart is sometimes inoperative; I just find it suspect that the only times I hear about it being inoperative is when the terminating aircraft has a deferred APU and the aircraft is scheduled to go to maintenance. Furthermore; I've tried on several occasions; to no avail; to communicate that the aircraft is to not be touched as long as the beacon is on. However; they continue to begin the unloading of bags even when the engine is still running. I know that other airlines permit bags to be loaded and unloaded with the #2 engine running; but they don't seem to know (or care) that this is not the case for us (incidentally; this phenomenon is not isolated to the ground crews at this station or this code share company). I suggest we do more to make ground crews aware of our procedures or we look at making our procedures match those of other airlines.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ Captain arriving with an inoperative APU and no ground power available; is instructed to leave an engine running by the mainline carriers operations personnel which is a violation of the reporters company procedures. The reporter is suspicious that the GPU is not available because maintenance is taking the aircraft to the hanger and does not want to go to the trouble of hooking it up.

Narrative: Twice in the past month I have brought terminating aircraft into this airport with the APU deferred; both times have been for the code share. Both times; we have called in range and requested a GPU. Both times the Operations Agent has told us that a GPU and air cart are unavailable and Maintenance is taking the aircraft; so I should leave an engine running. Both times I have told the Operations Agent that we are not permitted to service the aircraft with an engine running and we will be shutting down the aircraft upon arrival. Both times I've been told something to the effect of 'We'll contact the Maintenance Supervisor; but they're not going to like it; our air cart is inoperative and they'll have no way of starting the engines.' Both times we have arrived at the gate; no GPU or air cart available and we've been forced to begin deplaning with the #2 engine running. Both times the ground crew began to unload the bags with the beacon still on; forcing me to shut down the running engine without any other power available. Both times I have talked to the mechanics meeting the aircraft and they don't understand why I'm unable to hand the airplane over to them with the engine running.Concerning the maintenance crews: I have no doubt that they are qualified to sit in the cockpit and monitor a running engine while the flight crew leaves the aircraft. However; I don't feel comfortable completing all of my duties except the 'Shutdown Check'. If it is really operationally necessary for maintenance to do a 'hot swap' so they can better do their jobs; we'd have a procedure in place for it. Concerning operations: I have no doubt that the air cart is sometimes inoperative; I just find it suspect that the only times I hear about it being inoperative is when the terminating aircraft has a deferred APU and the aircraft is scheduled to go to Maintenance. Furthermore; I've tried on several occasions; to no avail; to communicate that the aircraft is to not be touched as long as the beacon is on. However; they continue to begin the unloading of bags even when the engine is still running. I know that other airlines permit bags to be loaded and unloaded with the #2 engine running; but they don't seem to know (or care) that this is not the case for us (incidentally; this phenomenon is not isolated to the ground crews at this station or this code share company). I suggest we do more to make ground crews aware of our procedures or we look at making our procedures match those of other airlines.

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.