EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter FOD; Ground Event / Encounter Person / Animal / Bird
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Human Factors
We were at the gate with the parking brake set waiting for the GPU to be plugged in with engine 1 running. There was a short delay of about 90 seconds shutting down the engine while we tried to get the aircraft to accept the GPU power. At some point between setting the brake and engine shut down a ramp worker moved in front of the running engine and was nearly sucked in. His hearing protection headphones were sucked from his head and ingested into the engine; causing damage to the fan. We were unaware this had happened until another ramp worker came into the cockpit during deplaning and told us. There was also evidence at the rear of the engine that parts of the headphones were ingested into the core of the engine. Parts of the headphones were ejected approximately 75 FT behind the engine. I feel that the best way to prevent this from happening again is with training and selection of the ramp workers. There is really no excuse for someone to be on the ramp who does not know to stay away from running engines. The bad GPU did force us to keep the engine running longer than normal; and did drop offline after shutdown.
[Narrative 2 has no additional information.]
An ERJ-170 flight crew reported that while they were at the gate with an engine running a ramper walked so close to the engine that his ear muffs were ingested into the engine; causing fan damage.