Narrative:

During a turn of the aircraft; a spraying for sanitizing process was performed by a local vendor in an inadequate manner. Technicians were aboard the plane and had asked the vendor to hold off spraying the cabin till maintenance was finished with a log item. Communication broke down between the vendor and maintenance personnel and the spraying procedure began.soon after; a technician on board the aircraft started to experience lightheadedness. The immediate supervisor was informed and the technician was escorted to medical. Myself; and other members of the safety team happened to be in the office when the technician began experiencing lightheadedness and followed up with an observation. We are concerned that there seems to be no effective way to communicate to maintenance personnel that spraying is being performed on an aircraft. We would prefer either an assigned item to the planned work or a log write/up. In other words; technicians are unaware if it will be performed on a given aircraft turn. Secondly; with regard to operational control; we would like to devise a plan and communicate it to personnel the maintenance controller; X vendor and maintenance should devise a plan about who has control. Airworthiness of the aircraft and time allocation should prevail. We mention this because the technicians stated that the vendor pushed for completion of his work first. Our concern here is there appears to be a case where the vendor chose to break procedures and spray the cabin with maintenance on board. They failed to clear the aircraft prior to spraying. The spray information sheet is alarming. The dilution formula; is it safe? The new procedures that recently went into effect in the manual indicate that there is no wait time before people can board the aircraft. Previously; there was a 10 minute wait period after completion of spraying before personnel and passengers could board the aircraft.furthermore; the new procedures do not require excess fluid/residue to be wiped up with a clean rag. Were these new procedures intentional or simply overlooked? The gentleman who went to medical most likely had an allergic reaction to the mixture. We are asking to reconsider re-implementing a sufficient wait period prior to entering the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Maintenance Technician reported an aircraft sanitizing vendor started spraying the aircraft while maintenance personal were still on board. Technician reports one mechanic became ill.

Narrative: During a turn of the aircraft; a spraying for sanitizing process was performed by a local vendor in an inadequate manner. Technicians were aboard the plane and had asked the vendor to hold off spraying the cabin till maintenance was finished with a log item. Communication broke down between the vendor and maintenance personnel and the spraying procedure began.Soon after; a Technician on board the aircraft started to experience lightheadedness. The immediate Supervisor was informed and the Technician was escorted to medical. Myself; and other members of the safety team happened to be in the office when the Technician began experiencing lightheadedness and followed up with an observation. We are concerned that there seems to be no effective way to communicate to maintenance personnel that spraying is being performed on an aircraft. We would prefer either an assigned item to the planned work or a log write/up. In other words; Technicians are unaware if it will be performed on a given aircraft turn. Secondly; with regard to operational control; we would like to devise a plan and communicate it to personnel The Maintenance Controller; X Vendor and Maintenance should devise a plan about who has control. Airworthiness of the aircraft and time allocation should prevail. We mention this because the technicians stated that the vendor pushed for completion of his work first. Our concern here is there appears to be a case where the vendor chose to break procedures and spray the cabin with maintenance on board. They failed to clear the aircraft prior to spraying. The spray information sheet is alarming. The dilution formula; is it safe? The new procedures that recently went into effect in the manual indicate that there is no wait time before people can board the aircraft. Previously; there was a 10 minute wait period after completion of spraying before personnel and passengers could board the aircraft.Furthermore; the new procedures do not require excess fluid/residue to be wiped up with a clean rag. Were these new procedures intentional or simply overlooked? The gentleman who went to medical most likely had an allergic reaction to the mixture. We are asking to reconsider re-implementing a sufficient wait period prior to entering the aircraft.

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.