Narrative:

During the climb at about 17;000 feet we got a call from the flight attendants that they smelled smoke in the cabin. On further query they said all 4 flight attendants smelled smoke throughout the cabin and it smelled 'like electrical smoke.' we called center and told them we needed an emergency return for smoke in the cabin. I took the radios and the aircraft while the first officer began the checklist for descent; smoke; and overweight landing as well as getting our landing performance data. We [advised ATC] and began our descent.at about 10;000 feet I asked for a 360 or a vector to lose altitude and a vector was given. Before landing all checklists were complied with. Landing was overweight and a flaps 3 configuration. The flight attendants reported that the smoke smell was continuing but not getting worse. We decided that we would taxi to the gate with fire and rescue accompanying. After passengers were deplaned the crew exited into the jetway to escape the fumes. Calls were made to maintenance; dispatch and soc. Contract maintenance came to work on the aircraft and I assisted him with starting the APU and turning packs on to troubleshoot the smoke source.after an hour or so he stated that there was a smoke smell coming from both packs and that maintenance wanted us to run both engines and packs one at a time. He stated that we would need to run engine 1 on each pack for about 5 minutes then repeat with the other engine. During this time the entire crew moved to the top of the jetway since the smoke was so strong near the aircraft. I felt that it would not be safe to be on board the aircraft in the smoke for 20 minutes for an engine run. I refused to do so and spoke again to the duty manager to explain this. He called maintenance who stated that the flight would have to be cancelled and this would be a 'crew cancellation.' contract maintenance then continued to work and found that number 1 pack had burn marks from high heat and placed pack 1 on MEL. We then re-boarded the aircraft but then had to wait about 20 minutes for the fuel that was on our release. We then departed for a normal flight.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 flight crew reported they were charged with a 'crew cancellation' because they refused to assist maintenance with an engine run test for smoke in the cabin.

Narrative: During the climb at about 17;000 feet we got a call from the Flight Attendants that they smelled smoke in the cabin. On further query they said all 4 Flight Attendants smelled smoke throughout the cabin and it smelled 'like electrical smoke.' We called Center and told them we needed an emergency return for smoke in the cabin. I took the radios and the aircraft while the First Officer began the checklist for descent; smoke; and overweight landing as well as getting our landing performance data. We [advised ATC] and began our descent.At about 10;000 feet I asked for a 360 or a vector to lose altitude and a vector was given. Before landing all checklists were complied with. Landing was overweight and a flaps 3 configuration. The flight attendants reported that the smoke smell was continuing but not getting worse. We decided that we would taxi to the gate with fire and rescue accompanying. After passengers were deplaned the crew exited into the jetway to escape the fumes. Calls were made to maintenance; dispatch and SOC. Contract maintenance came to work on the aircraft and I assisted him with starting the APU and turning packs on to troubleshoot the smoke source.After an hour or so he stated that there was a smoke smell coming from both packs and that maintenance wanted us to run both engines and packs one at a time. He stated that we would need to run engine 1 on each pack for about 5 minutes then repeat with the other engine. During this time the entire crew moved to the top of the jetway since the smoke was so strong near the aircraft. I felt that it would not be safe to be on board the aircraft in the smoke for 20 minutes for an engine run. I refused to do so and spoke again to the duty manager to explain this. He called Maintenance who stated that the flight would have to be cancelled and this would be a 'crew cancellation.' Contract maintenance then continued to work and found that Number 1 pack had burn marks from high heat and placed pack 1 on MEL. We then re-boarded the aircraft but then had to wait about 20 minutes for the fuel that was on our release. We then departed for a normal flight.

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.