diff --git a/lib/nbd/nbd_rpc.c b/lib/nbd/nbd_rpc.c
index d10254021..08e053487 100644
--- a/lib/nbd/nbd_rpc.c
+++ b/lib/nbd/nbd_rpc.c
@@ -158,6 +158,7 @@ rpc_start_nbd_done(void *cb_arg, struct spdk_nbd_disk *nbd, int rc)
 
 	if (rc) {
 		spdk_jsonrpc_send_error_response(request, rc, spdk_strerror(-rc));
+		free_rpc_nbd_start_disk(req);
 		return;
 	}