A320
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
During cruise at FL350 we experienced a faint acrid smell that we both thought smelled like a possible electrical fire. At about the same time the A Flight Attendant called to report a strange smell in the mid cabin. I asked the flight attendant to let me know if it got better or worse. The smell was getting stronger in the cockpit causing the First Officer and I to don our masks; [advise ATC of the situation]; and request direct ZZZ (the closest large airport).About this time we received a BLOWER FAULT. We ran the ECAM; but the fumes continued to stay strong; basically unchanged. We were given direct ZZZ and lower. I asked my First Officer to run the SMOKE/FUMES/AVIONICS checklist which he did while I expedited the decent into ZZZ and sent dispatch a message advising them of our situation. My First Officer finished up the checklist; advised the flight attendants we were diverting to ZZZ and that this was a cabin advisory only and that we did not anticipate an evacuation unless circumstances changed. I asked my First Officer to run the performance numbers into ZZZ which he did. We needed to perform a couple of S turns to lose the last little bit of altitude and we landed in ZZZ without incident.The fire and rescue reported no visible smoke from the airplane; they followed us to the gate and we deplaned at the gate. I wanted the passengers off the airplane and not exposed to the fumes that we were still smelling very strongly in the cockpit. I asked the flight attendants to open all the doors in order to air out the airplane. We already had the cockpit windows open. The whole thing took about 20 minutes from the first awareness of fumes to landing in ZZZ.After things calmed down I was going over the fuel load for the next leg and noticed that we still had roughly 18;000 pounds of fuel onboard. I reran the landing numbers and realized we were overweight on landing. I immediately let Maintenance know and put it in the logbook.I think the default landing fuel should be left blank until the pilot inputs the landing fuel. Often First Officers don't ever change this number due to the fact that you usually land with less fuel than planned. As we all know this is not always the case; but the habit is formed none the less. Leaving it blank would insure an accurate landing weight with regard to fuel load.
A320 Captain reported that while in cruise they experienced a faint acrid smell that smelled like a possible electrical fire.