Narrative:

After aircraft was chocked and air and power was attached. I went to scan the bags off the front of AC. Ramp agent told me he smelled 'gas' in the rear pit and was not able to get in the pit with the smell. I went back to see what type of 'gas' smell he was encountering. While standing on the ground I walked up to the rear pit door and the smell was immediate. The chemical smell burned my eyes and nose. The smell was of a solvent or acetone. I called the area supervisor to come to the gate. I also requested that the fire department be dispatched. Company policy dictates that if there is an 'unknown' chemical smell; we keep people away and notify management and other agencies to identify the source of the 'foreign' substance. As soon as the supervisor showed up he jumped right up into the pit and repeatedly told us he smelt 'nothing'. He was attempting to make the situation 'clear' and for us to proceed with download. I told him that we were not going to do that until the fire department had deemed it safe. From the beginning to the end of this highly volatile situation the supervisor was attempting to down play the situation and his entire focus was on making the outbound on time. As I will describe in this report you will see that the supervisor disregards most all of the safety protocol set forth by [company] on how to handle these situations. The supervisor was still in the pit and I had asked him to get out. Then over the radio by zone control is was conveyed to not be in the rear pit until fire department was on scene. I again relayed that to the supervisor who had heard the same message over his radio. Upon the arrival of the fire department I explained to the fire captain what we had encountered. He then had two fire fighters enter the pit with the 'hand held' hazmat kit that can detect certain toxins; chemicals and explosives. They were getting immediate readings. The fire fighters then put on their respirators while monitoring the sensors. It was decided by the fire captain to have the firemen unload the 2800 lbs of mail. It was not safe with the unknown chemical smell to have people without the proper personal protective equipment (ppe). After unloading the first couple of hundred pounds of mail a mail bag with a very distinct and strong odor came out of the pit and was set to the side. The fire captain gave commands to keep a perimeter around that bag and asked me to get a tractor and cart to place the mail bag in and then move to a more remote location on the gate for them to run further tests. Immediately the supervisor was touching the bag; moving the bag around to pull mail numbers off the bag. This was right after the fire captain had told people not to touch and keep a perimeter around this effected mail bag and that he or his people will handle the bag from this point on. I had a tractor and cart brought over and the firemen wearing ppe handled the mail package and asked that I drive the cart to the edge of the gate away from the plane for them to do further testing. At this point while we are still in the process of the fire department in full protective gear unloading the mail. The supervisor starts to ask me about could we start loading the front of the aircraft for the outbound. I told him I did not have an outbound card currently. At this point the first set of fireman's respirator air tanks went empty and they had to switch with another two fireman with fresh tanks to continue dumping the mail. At this point I went to get an outbound card. I noticed load planning was set to load two live animals on the departure and about 45 bags. Once mail was dumped we were asked by the fire department to close rear cargo door and then they could use their meters to see if there was residual fume build up or removal of the package resolved the problem. The entire time we were waiting for clearance on the pit the supervisor is asking me about loading. What I tried explaining to him was that if the rear pit was inopor there were any other issues it would change the entire load plane for the out bound.I am not sure if the pressure for on time departures is what is motivating the supervisor to ignore all safety protocol in this situation. His continued pressure to start loading out bound flight when we do not have a cleared airplane or pit for that matter. Without that information you cannot have a card for the aircraft. There was such concern about the possible air quality on the airplane that the three kennels were first moved to the forward bag pits; then taken off the flight for the safety of the animals. Once the fire department checked the rear pit and the fume level was now low enough to enter the pit we continued with the loading of the aircraft. While only taking a minimal delay for the amount of activity that was going on.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp Agent reported that while unloading the aft pit of an aircraft they encountered a chemical smell. The fire department was called and found that the smell originated from a mail bag.

Narrative: After aircraft was chocked and air and power was attached. I went to scan the bags off the front of AC. Ramp Agent told me he smelled 'gas' in the rear pit and was not able to get in the pit with the smell. I went back to see what type of 'gas' smell he was encountering. While standing on the ground I walked up to the rear pit door and the smell was immediate. The chemical smell burned my eyes and nose. The smell was of a solvent or acetone. I called the Area Supervisor to come to the gate. I also requested that the fire department be dispatched. Company policy dictates that if there is an 'unknown' chemical smell; we keep people away and notify management and other agencies to identify the source of the 'foreign' substance. As soon as the Supervisor showed up he jumped right up into the pit and repeatedly told us he smelt 'nothing'. He was attempting to make the situation 'clear' and for us to proceed with download. I told him that we were not going to do that until the Fire Department had deemed it safe. From the beginning to the end of this highly volatile situation the Supervisor was attempting to down play the situation and his entire focus was on making the outbound on time. As I will describe in this report you will see that the Supervisor disregards most all of the safety protocol set forth by [Company] on how to handle these situations. The Supervisor was still in the pit and I had asked him to get out. Then over the radio by Zone Control is was conveyed to not be in the rear pit until Fire Department was on scene. I again relayed that to the Supervisor who had heard the same message over his radio. Upon the arrival of the Fire Department I explained to the Fire Captain what we had encountered. He then had two fire fighters enter the pit with the 'Hand Held' hazmat kit that can detect certain toxins; chemicals and explosives. They were getting immediate readings. The fire fighters then put on their respirators while monitoring the sensors. It was decided by the Fire Captain to have the firemen unload the 2800 lbs of mail. It was not safe with the unknown chemical smell to have people without the proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). After unloading the first couple of hundred pounds of mail a mail bag with a very distinct and strong odor came out of the pit and was set to the side. The fire Captain gave commands to keep a perimeter around that bag and asked me to get a tractor and cart to place the mail bag in and then move to a more remote location on the gate for them to run further tests. Immediately the Supervisor was touching the bag; moving the bag around to pull mail numbers off the bag. This was right after the Fire Captain had told people not to touch and keep a perimeter around this effected mail bag and that he or his people will handle the bag from this point on. I had a tractor and cart brought over and the firemen wearing PPE handled the mail package and asked that I drive the cart to the edge of the gate away from the plane for them to do further testing. At this point while we are still in the process of the fire department in full protective gear unloading the mail. The Supervisor starts to ask me about could we start loading the front of the aircraft for the outbound. I told him I did not have an outbound card currently. At this point the first set of fireman's respirator air tanks went empty and they had to switch with another two fireman with fresh tanks to continue dumping the mail. At this point I went to get an outbound card. I noticed load planning was set to load two live animals on the departure and about 45 bags. Once mail was dumped we were asked by the Fire Department to close rear cargo door and then they could use their meters to see if there was residual fume build up or removal of the package resolved the problem. The entire time we were waiting for clearance on the pit the Supervisor is asking me about loading. What I tried explaining to him was that if the rear pit was inopor there were any other issues it would change the entire load plane for the out bound.I am not sure if the pressure for on time departures is what is motivating the Supervisor to ignore all safety protocol in this situation. His continued pressure to start loading out bound flight when we do not have a cleared airplane or pit for that matter. Without that information you cannot have a card for the aircraft. There was such concern about the possible air quality on the airplane that the three kennels were first moved to the Forward bag pits; then taken off the flight for the safety of the animals. Once the fire department checked the rear pit and the fume level was now low enough to enter the pit we continued with the loading of the aircraft. While only taking a minimal delay for the amount of activity that was going on.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.