Narrative:

While holding number one for takeoff; I finished the throttle burst check and dropped my hand toward the parking brake lever. My finger inadvertently caught the number 1 engine start lever and pulled it out of the detent. It moved slightly out of the idle position and I perceived the engine instruments rolling back to shut down. Rather than pushing the start lever back to idle; I elected to continue to shut the engine down normally. Before we could inform tower that we would need a couple of minutes before departure; tower cleared us to line up and wait. Before moving; we told tower we were not ready and needed to taxi around (2 other planes behind us). Tower cleared us down the runway and take the first exit and stop there. We did. We accomplished an engine start; accomplished the before taxi and before takeoff checklists and departed normally. More attention on my part to cockpit tasks. First officer and ATC not involved in causing event.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 captain reported inadvertently bumping the number 1 start lever out of the run position while holding short causing the engine to shut down.

Narrative: While holding number one for takeoff; I finished the Throttle Burst Check and dropped my hand toward the parking brake lever. My finger inadvertently caught the number 1 engine start lever and pulled it out of the detent. It moved slightly out of the idle position and I perceived the engine instruments rolling back to shut down. Rather than pushing the start lever back to idle; I elected to continue to shut the engine down normally. Before we could inform Tower that we would need a couple of minutes before departure; Tower cleared us to Line Up and Wait. Before moving; we told Tower we were not ready and needed to taxi around (2 other planes behind us). Tower cleared us down the runway and take the first exit and stop there. We did. We accomplished an engine start; accomplished the Before Taxi and Before Takeoff checklists and departed normally. More attention on my part to cockpit tasks. First Officer and ATC not involved in causing event.

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.