Narrative:

At approximately 10;000 feet noticed odor in cockpit and mentioned it to the first officer who confirmed presence. Smell was not overly offensive (sweet/sour); but light and seemingly dissipated quickly. After deplaning flight attendants stated vehemently that they had experienced acrid/sweet/sour odor during initial descent; but since it seemingly dissipated quickly decided not to notify us in the cockpit. Cockpit crew concurred with presence of light odor in the cockpit without taking any action since it appeared to be 'faint' and 'short lived'.after deplaning both maintenance and dispatch were notified of event and cabin condition form immediately completed. Maintenance personnel stated that oil residue was apparently present on engine 2's forward breather mast and when he was accomplishing the pack procedure he and I did identify an odor present in mid cabin. Crew was determined to be 'fit' for further duty by self-evaluation although several of us thought we had a 'short lived' possible headache undetermined to be related to the event or not. Entire crew proceeded with 2 subsequent flights; 2 aircraft swaps too without further event or deviation or abnormalities. As a side note; the following day the entire crew that was present during the preceding event stated feelings of abnormal/slight tiredness or lack of quality rest whether related to the event or not being unknown; but 'fit' for flight.believing that this event was indeed an actual event I now believe that any self-evaluation of exposure or symptoms may be insufficient/flawed when accompanied by any corroborating evidence (i.e. Residue on breather and/or odor during the burnout procedure) and require mandatory professional evaluation ordered by the company. Flight attendants should also be more aggressive in dealing with any unknown odor whether it dissipates or not and confer with the cockpit regardless of phase of flight since I believe that one may become 'nose-blind' to that odor rapidly. Having known that the flight attendants experienced this odor earlier in the flight would've allowed us to take a more diligent course of action.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain reported detecting a faint sweet/sour odor descending through about 10;000 feet. After landing the Flight Attendants reported an acrid; sweet; sour odor when the descent was initiated. The following two days the crew felt slightly tired and believe a medical evaluation should have followed the exposure.

Narrative: At approximately 10;000 feet noticed odor in cockpit and mentioned it to the First Officer who confirmed presence. Smell was not overly offensive (sweet/sour); but light and seemingly dissipated quickly. After deplaning flight attendants stated vehemently that they had experienced acrid/sweet/sour odor during initial descent; but since it seemingly dissipated quickly decided not to notify us in the cockpit. Cockpit crew concurred with presence of light odor in the cockpit without taking any action since it appeared to be 'faint' and 'short lived'.After deplaning both Maintenance and Dispatch were notified of event and cabin condition form immediately completed. Maintenance personnel stated that oil residue was apparently present on engine 2's forward breather mast and when he was accomplishing the pack procedure he and I did identify an odor present in mid cabin. Crew was determined to be 'fit' for further duty by self-evaluation although several of us thought we had a 'short lived' possible headache undetermined to be related to the event or not. Entire crew proceeded with 2 subsequent flights; 2 aircraft swaps too without further event or deviation or abnormalities. As a side note; the following day the entire crew that was present during the preceding event stated feelings of abnormal/slight tiredness or lack of quality rest whether related to the event or not being unknown; but 'fit' for flight.Believing that this event was indeed an actual event I now believe that any self-evaluation of exposure or symptoms may be insufficient/flawed when accompanied by any corroborating evidence (i.e. residue on breather and/or odor during the burnout procedure) and require mandatory professional evaluation ordered by the company. Flight attendants should also be more aggressive in dealing with any unknown odor whether it dissipates or not and confer with the cockpit regardless of phase of flight since I believe that one may become 'nose-blind' to that odor rapidly. Having known that the flight attendants experienced this odor earlier in the flight would've allowed us to take a more diligent course of action.

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.