Narrative:

We received the dirty sock smell after takeoff; which dissipated by the time we reached 10;000 feet. The odor appeared again just prior to landing during the final 1;000 feet of the approach to landing. The flight attendants and a commuting pilot in the cabin did not notice any unusual odors. After the flight; the captain contacted maintenance control and they deferred pack 1. On the next flight (part 2 of a turn in the same aircraft); we did not notice any odors. Suggestions: having had five such dirty-sock-smell fume events; I've noticed what appears to be a correlation between these incidents and the airplane having had a recent service check and/or having a high oil level. In this case; the oil level was at 11.1 on each engine after shutdown. After shutdown on the subsequent flight (during which pack 1 was already deferred); the oil levels were at 10.6 on engine 1 and 10.5 on engine 2. My observation is that the when the oil is over-serviced; it is more likely to contaminate the bleed air. Perhaps servicing the oil to a lower level could reduce the number of fume events at our airline. Nevertheless; the company owes the employees an update on the investigation into the cause of these hazardous incidents.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-170 First Officer reported a 'dirty socks smell' after takeoff; and during approach to landing.

Narrative: We received the dirty sock smell after takeoff; which dissipated by the time we reached 10;000 feet. The odor appeared again just prior to landing during the final 1;000 feet of the approach to landing. The flight attendants and a commuting pilot in the cabin did not notice any unusual odors. After the flight; the Captain contacted Maintenance Control and they deferred PACK 1. On the next flight (part 2 of a turn in the same aircraft); we did not notice any odors. Suggestions: Having had five such dirty-sock-smell fume events; I've noticed what appears to be a correlation between these incidents and the airplane having had a recent service check and/or having a high oil level. In this case; the oil level was at 11.1 on each engine after shutdown. After shutdown on the subsequent flight (during which PACK 1 was already deferred); the oil levels were at 10.6 on engine 1 and 10.5 on engine 2. My observation is that the when the oil is over-serviced; it is more likely to contaminate the bleed air. Perhaps servicing the oil to a lower level could reduce the number of fume events at our airline. Nevertheless; the company owes the employees an update on the investigation into the cause of these hazardous incidents.

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.