Flight Attendant Current
Physiological - Other
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Aircraft Equipment Problem Dissipated; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft
About 10 minutes into boarding flight to ZZZ1 aft cabin was cool. FA (Flight Attendant) called f/d (flight deck) to turn heat up in back. Pilots started APU. Quickly we smelled exhaust in cabin. Trouble is; it got worse with heat and stayed in cabin for about 5 minutes when I called fwd Flight Attendant to see if odor was worse in mid cabin as we were actively boarding and I could not move fwd easily. D FA said yes odor is bad. I called f/d to notify. They stated it is normal on APU start up. I have been flying for over 15 years in and out of ZZZ. I never had odor last so long. About 10 minutes later I asked pilot to come back. 6-7 minutes later he made it back here. By then I opened L2 for fresh air. He explained the odor is totally normal for cold dense air that was ZZZ. When boarding was complete I did cabin safety check and one passenger at row 21 asked about odor and said she had a headache coming on because of it. Other FA stated that passenger in exit row was wiping their eyes and stated that is was due to odor. The odor did diminish within maybe 20 minutes. This is not safe for any of us on aircraft. I had an unusual cough through this morning since incident. I am sure I am not the only one. Please mitigate this issue in such cold temps for our safety and passengers. Turn on APU before passengers board in such cold temps.
B737-900 Flight Attendant reported a fume event during passenger boarding. Flight attendants and one passenger experienced physiological issues.