A-321 captain reported 'strong body odor' upon arrival to preflight aircraft. After maintenance repl...

Narrative:

Arrived to preflight and found AC (aircraft) with APU running but no bleed air or external air. AC was very hot and had a 'strong body odor'. Turned on APU bleed and cooled AC but flight attendant (flight attendant) still complained about smell. Called maintenance and they researched the smell but could not locate. They called their supervisor who also did not find the cause. They said it was just stale east&east (electrical and environmental) air circulating. Supervisors supervisor showed up with two other maintenance personnel and did another inspection. They said that they could smell a faint smell but could not pinpoint or locate it and signed off logbook. Flight attendant called their supervisors to aircraft in which they said that they could smell the smell. They then took 3 of the 4 [flight attendants] off the trip to hospital. Then the head of maintenance showed up and said he smelled the smell. He promptly called and had the AC removed from line and moved to hanger and also lined up a replacement aircraft. He stated that we were not going to fly that AC with a smell. My write up in logbook was about a strong odor aboard which was signed off ok by maintenance. While we were retrieving our bags another maintenance person a showed up and wanted me to write in the logbook refused aircraft. I did make the entry but the head of maintenance had already removed the AC from the line.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A-321 Captain reported 'strong body odor' upon arrival to preflight aircraft. After Maintenance replaced aircraft; two Flight Attendants were treated for physiological symptoms from cabin fumes.

Narrative: Arrived to preflight and found AC (Aircraft) with APU running but no bleed air or external air. AC was very hot and had a 'strong body odor'. Turned on APU bleed and cooled AC but FA (Flight Attendant) still complained about smell. Called Maintenance and they researched the smell but could not locate. They called their supervisor who also did not find the cause. They said it was just stale E&E (Electrical and Environmental) air circulating. Supervisors supervisor showed up with two other Maintenance personnel and did another inspection. They said that they could smell a faint smell but could not pinpoint or locate it and signed off logbook. FA called their supervisors to aircraft in which they said that they could smell the smell. They then took 3 of the 4 [Flight Attendants] off the trip to hospital. Then the head of Maintenance showed up and said he smelled the smell. He promptly called and had the AC removed from line and moved to hanger and also lined up a replacement aircraft. He stated that we were not going to fly that AC with a smell. My write up in logbook was about a strong odor aboard which was signed off OK by Maintenance. While we were retrieving our bags another Maintenance person a showed up and wanted me to write in the logbook refused aircraft. I did make the entry but the head of Maintenance had already removed the AC from the line.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1717151
Time
Date	202001
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A321
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness

A-321 captain reported 'strong body odor' upon arrival to preflight aircraft. After maintenance replaced aircraft; two flight attendants were treated for physiological symptoms from cabin fumes.