Narrative:

My captain and I had just landed after an early morning flight when we were informed that there would be a delay getting to our gate. As a result we were directed to the holding area to wait until our gate was clear. After clearing the runway we conducted our normal after landing/taxi checklist and started the APU. After a few minutes we placed aircraft power and air onto the APU; and shut down the right engine to save some fuel. Upon arriving at the west holding bay after a slow taxi I heard a pop and the aircraft power dropped off to only battery power. Immediately the cockpit started to get filled with an acrid odor and at one point it was burning the back of my throat. About this time the flight attendants called and said they were experiencing the same thing. The captain notified ground of our issue and had them dispatch the arff equipment as a precautionary measure in case there was an undetected fire on the aircraft. We turned off the APU bleed and turned the left engine bleed back on to help clear the smoke. I opened the QRH to the smoke and fumes checklist should the condition continue. Once arff reached the aircraft they reported that there was nothing they could see from the outside of the aircraft. Additionally the odor was almost entirely clear from both the cockpit and cabin. Having no further issues we taxied to the gate; had maintenance hook up external power and shut down.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 flight crew reported fumes in the cockpit and cabin from the APU while waiting for a gate to open up.

Narrative: My Captain and I had just landed after an early morning flight when we were informed that there would be a delay getting to our gate. As a result we were directed to the holding area to wait until our gate was clear. After clearing the runway we conducted our normal after landing/taxi checklist and started the APU. After a few minutes we placed aircraft power and air onto the APU; and shut down the right engine to save some fuel. Upon arriving at the west holding bay after a slow taxi I heard a pop and the aircraft power dropped off to only battery power. Immediately the cockpit started to get filled with an acrid odor and at one point it was burning the back of my throat. About this time the flight attendants called and said they were experiencing the same thing. The Captain notified ground of our issue and had them dispatch the ARFF equipment as a precautionary measure in case there was an undetected fire on the aircraft. We turned off the APU bleed and turned the left engine bleed back on to help clear the smoke. I opened the QRH to the Smoke and fumes checklist should the condition continue. Once ARFF reached the aircraft they reported that there was nothing they could see from the outside of the aircraft. Additionally the odor was almost entirely clear from both the cockpit and cabin. Having no further issues we taxied to the gate; had maintenance hook up external power and shut down.

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.