RJ Preparing to T Off without Both Engines Running

[vanNostrum]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why the crew of a St. Louis-bound regional jet preparing for takeoff from Washington Dulles International Airport did not have both of the plane's engines operating.

Flight 8023 to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport was being flown by Bridgeton-based Trans States Airlines, a regional feeder airline for United Airlines and US Airways. The carrier serves 46 cities.

The March 1 commuter flight never took off but the crew was preparing for takeoff with only one of the Embraer's two engines turned on, said Elizabeth Isham Cory, an FAA spokeswoman.

"The FAA takes all allegations of airline employees failing to follow procedures very seriously and conducts a thorough investigation in each case," she said.

Trans States spokesman Fred Oxley on Wednesday declined to comment on specifics of the flight because of the ongoing FAA investigation, including the names of the flight crew. But pilots for the airline have identified one of the pilots as a flight operations director at the airline.

[Nark]

This is a pretty old story, but it’s fitting.

The most dangerous flights are flown by the management types.

[vanNostrum]

Former Chief Pilot, he claimed the second engine shut down on its own

[Scudrunner]

I hate when that happens

[vanNostrum]

I hate when that happens

Heard it is a common occurrence

[Colonel]

I'd be really impressed if they could take off with both engines shut down.

Even Fat Albert might struggle with that.

[Scudrunner]

I hate when that happens

Heard it is a common occurrence

I blame the hippies, airlines started taxiing out on one to save fuel and spark up last minute on the taxi out.

Never been a fan of that now you got one guy heads down monitoring the start while the other guy taxis around I mean what could go wrong.

Then you got a cold and yes I know modern turbines are aweewwesome, then you spark that up and a few minutes later set thrust mmmm not a fan of that.

Not to mention the yaw of one engine pushing a fully loaded mtow aircraft around, I’m sure the engineers say it’s cool but not a fan of that.

[Colonel]

airlines started taxiing out on one to save fuel and spark up last minute

The old Lear drivers (23, 24) used to do that. I remember the first time I saw that, as a pax
in an aluminum tube.

Guy tried to start up the second engine right before takeoff, with a strong wind up the tailpipe.

You know what happened. Spectacular. Hot start. We taxiied back to the gate, got off.
Presumably an engine change followed.

They sure saved a lot of money that day. I wish I was that smart.

[Slick Goodlin]

There’s a bunch of valid and company approved reasons to taxi out on two engines, and for those who want to there’s always a reason that can be applied.

I’m somewhat more indifferent to taxiing in on one.

[Nark]

Visibility, contamination and a host of other reasons prohibit us from single engine taxi.

Like all good things in aviation: there’s a lot of variables when I decide to single or dual engine taxi. Weight, and turning off the ramp are two huge factors.

We have 2 limitations on the IAE’s: 3 minute warm up if they’ve been running in the previous 2 hours. If not it’s 5 minutes before applying takeoff thrust.