B777-300
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Procedure
On arrival we were using the self-parking system to dock at the gate. The system failed about 20 feet from the stop point and we stopped the aircraft immediately; calling ramp to attempt to get the system reset. The ground workers thought that we must have stopped at the correct point; and one worker went and chocked the front gear. Another worker went and chocked the right main gear as we saw him on the 777-300 camera and a reflection in the window. The First Office and I noticed him; and after he placed the chocks; began to walk forward while between the right main gear and the operation engine. This worker was only a few feet (maybe 3) from the left side of the right engine and heading towards the inlet. I immediately reached over and cutoff the Fuel Control to the right engine shutting it down to prevent this worker from possibly being ingested into the operating engine. Especially with the GE-90 engine; being in close proximity would likely be fatal. This worker probably passed within 3-4 feet of the inlet of the now spinning down engine. This was a very serious breach of safety procedures and could easily have resulted in that workers death; along with the trauma of the other workers; crew; and passengers. I shut down the left engine to prevent anybody from approaching it also as they ignored the beacon light and operating engines. Next time we may not be so lucky. In this case; it only resulted in a 20 minute wait to get a tug to pull us into the gate.
B777 Captain reported shutting down the engines prior to parking due to ground personnel attempting to walk in front of the engines.