B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 250; Flight Crew Type 8000
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter FOD
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Company Policy; Airport; Human Factors; Procedure
The aircraft with APU was inoperable; so we had to ground start number one; prior to pushback. We coordinated with Ramp on interphone. They still had air connected. I said they could disconnect it. They said they could leave it connected. We asked if that was okay and they said yes. (I don't remember the exact wording of this conversation; but this was the gist of it). The First Officer (FO) and I discussed that this was unusual; but thought it would be nice for the Passengers to continue to have cool air during engine start. We started number one and put the aircraft on number one engine electrical power. We told the Ground Crew to disconnect ground air and electric. Shortly thereafter the aircraft shook like the tug was pushing against the parking brake. The FO noticed the engine was surging and figured something had been ingested. We shut down the engine. Ground finally said the air hose had been ingested into the number one engine. They said no one was hurt.We made an announcement to the Passengers and got ground power reconnected to the aircraft. The jetway was pulled up and we arranged to have the Passengers return to the terminal since ground air was not going to be available. I spoke with Operations; Dispatch; and Maintenance. I went down to take pictures of the engine damage for Maintenance. It was then that I realized the air hose had been running under the number one engine. I had not had the situational awareness (SA) to think of it before. This jetway is not typical where you can see the air hose. When we discussed the air remaining hooked up; I was thinking about it being hooked up on the right side; like the start air; for some reason.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
A B737 flight crew reported the ingestion of an external air conditioning supply hose during engine start; damaging the engine. Both external electrical power and air conditioning were connected to the aircraft due to an inoperative APU.