Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Physiological - Other; Situational Awareness; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
Aft (B) Flight Attendant contacted cockpit on arrival at around 5;000 FT saying she smelled a chemical odor. She had briefly smelled it on takeoff but dismissed it until it came back on arrival. We completed landing and taxied to gate. On shut down odor occurred again; this time all main cabin and cockpit was able to smell it as well. We had deiced the plane on a previous leg but this was not a deicing glycol smell; although it could be smelled at times too. Write up was made and cabin odor report filled out. Mechanic came and began procedure to determine smell. Nothing was found at gate. Crew was checked by paramedics for possible medical distress but nothing was found at time of checking. Mechanic said that procedure requested a run up to see if we could determine odor. Pilots and Mechanic went out and took aircraft to run up stand and ran both engines separately at high power to see if odor would happen but it did not. Aircraft was taken to hard stand and shut down. On shut down of Engine Number 2 odor re-occurred. Company was notified that odor seemed to be coming from Engine Number 2 and was happening on ground at shut down. Crew was sent home. Possible leakage of engine oil or fuel into air conditioning; but not fully determined. Find way to prevent contamination of cabin air from engines or a way to trap fumes if they do come from engine. The Company seemed very thorough in procedure to find leak. There was a form to fill out and MOC was fully involved as well and assisted us. However; I do not know what outcome is for this event.
A321 engine oil was suspected of contaminating the aircraft bleed system and the cabin air after a flight attendant detected a chemical odor in flight and mechanics confirmed the odor after an engine ground runup.