Narrative:

After doors were closed but before engines were started the aft flight attendant called the cockpit and said there was a strong 'dirty sock' smell in the rear of the airplane. We ran the QRH smoke/fumes procedure and that didn't seem to solve the issue. I made a passenger announcement and had gate personnel deplane the aircraft. I called maintenance and they had me fill out the cabin odor/fumes report which I did. Contract maintenance was called and eventually the mechanic found an oil leak in the APU. Around this time I went up to the gate area to discuss the issue with the first officer. He said he had recently been down to the plane and the fumes were still too strong for him to return to the aircraft. I told him I would not take the aircraft until the fumes were removed. I then called maintenance and they said the next step was to do an engine run at idle power to remove the odors from the air conditioning system. I looked in the fom for guidance on doing an engine run at the gate and was having trouble finding the relevant section. I then called the dispatcher and she put me in touch with the chief pilot. I explained the situation to him regarding the first officer and he said that I would be fine if the mechanic was with me and we were towed to the remote location instead of taxiing out on our own power. The mechanic then called [airport operations] and they said a two engine run at idle would have to be done at remote location. I arranged for the tow; and did the engine run up with the mechanic per guidance from maintenance. After the run was complete we were towed back to the gate. I shut the airplane down and turned the aircraft over to the mechanic to complete the cabin odor maintenance action. I then found out the first officer and the flight attendants had been placed on the next flight to ZZZ. I boarded that flight with a jumpseat listing and returned to ZZZ as the wait to talk to crew tracking was quite long and the flight to ZZZ was about to leave. I assumed since the rest of the crew had been booked on this flight that they had cancelled [flight] and had overlooked me in booking a seat back to ZZZ. In addition; I had a redeye to ZZZ1 the very next evening so I thought crew tracking would want me back in town for that. In hindsight I should have sent crew tracking a message from [system].it started with cabin odors caused by an APU oil leak that required deplaning the aircraft and going through the cabin odor maintenance process. The essence of the event is that I probably felt rushed to complete the cabin odor procedures so I could get the crew and the passengers back to ZZZ that evening. I didn't know at the time there was another flight to ZZZ so soon after ours or I would have handled things a little differently. I have learned a good lesson about self induced time pressures. You think you know all about get-there-itis and then it sneaks up on you. I thought I was being prudent by seeking guidance from the chief pilot and maintenance but in retrospect I should have called my own chief in ZZZ in the middle of an unfamiliar situation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew reported a fume event prior to gate pushback resulting a Maintenance delay and eventual flight cancelation.

Narrative: After doors were closed but before engines were started the aft flight attendant called the cockpit and said there was a strong 'dirty sock' smell in the rear of the airplane. We ran the QRH Smoke/Fumes procedure and that didn't seem to solve the issue. I made a passenger announcement and had gate personnel deplane the aircraft. I called Maintenance and they had me fill out the Cabin Odor/Fumes report which I did. Contract maintenance was called and eventually the mechanic found an oil leak in the APU. Around this time I went up to the gate area to discuss the issue with the First Officer. He said he had recently been down to the plane and the fumes were still too strong for him to return to the aircraft. I told him I would not take the aircraft until the fumes were removed. I then called Maintenance and they said the next step was to do an engine run at idle power to remove the odors from the air conditioning system. I looked in the FOM for guidance on doing an engine run at the gate and was having trouble finding the relevant section. I then called the Dispatcher and she put me in touch with the Chief Pilot. I explained the situation to him regarding the First Officer and he said that I would be fine if the mechanic was with me and we were towed to the remote location instead of taxiing out on our own power. The mechanic then called [Airport Operations] and they said a two engine run at idle would have to be done at remote location. I arranged for the tow; and did the engine run up with the mechanic per guidance from maintenance. After the run was complete we were towed back to the gate. I shut the airplane down and turned the aircraft over to the mechanic to complete the Cabin Odor maintenance action. I then found out the First Officer and the Flight Attendants had been placed on the next flight to ZZZ. I boarded that flight with a jumpseat listing and returned to ZZZ as the wait to talk to crew tracking was quite long and the flight to ZZZ was about to leave. I assumed since the rest of the crew had been booked on this flight that they had cancelled [flight] and had overlooked me in booking a seat back to ZZZ. In addition; I had a redeye to ZZZ1 the very next evening so I thought crew tracking would want me back in town for that. In hindsight I should have sent Crew Tracking a message from [system].It started with cabin odors caused by an APU oil leak that required deplaning the aircraft and going through the cabin odor maintenance process. The essence of the event is that I probably felt rushed to complete the cabin odor procedures so I could get the crew and the passengers back to ZZZ that evening. I didn't know at the time there was another flight to ZZZ so soon after ours or I would have handled things a little differently. I have learned a good lesson about self induced time pressures. You think you know all about get-there-itis and then it sneaks up on you. I thought I was being prudent by seeking guidance from the Chief Pilot and Maintenance but in retrospect I should have called my own Chief in ZZZ in the middle of an unfamiliar situation.

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.