Narrative:

Once the aircraft was parked; nose-gear secured with chocks and arrival hand signal given; ground power was connected and enabled. For almost 3 minutes; the flight crew left the #2 (right) engine running; even though customers were deplaning. The ramp crew was kept away from the aircraft; per SOP. The flight crew did not shut down this running engine until given the 'cut engine'; hand signal by me; the ramp supervisor. When given this hand signal; it took only about 15 seconds to cut the engine. Only then; did normal ramp servicing commence after the aircraft was safe to approach.events like this are the norm; rather than the exception for crj-700 crews. Some engines are left running for 5+ minutes.prolonging the engine shut-down time impacts both employee safety and operational performance. The long shutdown time and the time constraint of short ground times; leads to unsafe employee behavior of approaching the aircraft with a running engine; if not managed properly by the employees. The most effective risk control is to eliminate one or more threats. Following ramp SOP eliminates one threat; and changing shut-down procedures eliminates the other threat.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp Supervisor reported that their air carrier's CRJ-700 crews' seem to leave their right engine running long after ground power has been plugged in; jeopardizing ground safety.

Narrative: Once the aircraft was parked; nose-gear secured with chocks and arrival hand signal given; ground power was connected and enabled. For almost 3 minutes; the flight crew left the #2 (right) engine running; even though customers were deplaning. The ramp crew was kept away from the aircraft; per SOP. The flight crew did not shut down this running engine until given the 'cut engine'; hand signal by me; the ramp supervisor. When given this hand signal; it took only about 15 seconds to cut the engine. Only then; did normal ramp servicing commence after the aircraft was safe to approach.Events like this are the norm; rather than the exception for CRJ-700 crews. Some engines are left running for 5+ minutes.Prolonging the engine shut-down time impacts both employee safety and operational performance. The long shutdown time and the time constraint of short ground times; leads to unsafe employee behavior of approaching the aircraft with a running engine; if not managed properly by the employees. The most effective risk control is to eliminate one or more threats. Following ramp SOP eliminates one threat; and changing shut-down procedures eliminates the other threat.

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.