Narrative:

This report concerns a flooded aircraft and the procedures used by third party cleaners. We arrived at the airplane and I was one of the first to board; there was a very noticeable squishing and I looked down to see standing water in the whole forward entry area. I contacted maintenance control who arranged to have the area dried and for the electronics bays to be inspected for any water that may have leaked down. I told the gate agent to delay boarding until the problem was resolved and she contacted the supervisor in charge (I didn't get his name). Everyone worked very hard to resolve the problem including the supervisor. It turns out that the aircraft was parked off gate and the cleaning crew had to be shuttled out to do their job and they are not trained/allowed to open or close the aircraft doors. While they were cleaning; it rained very hard and by the time they went back to operations to get someone to close the door; the forward entry was more than saturated. There was no wet/dry vacuum available and the supervisor found a couple of big boxes of shop towels that did a very good job of absorbing most of the water. The contract mechanic cleared the east/east bays and was satisfied with the cabin cleanup job (as was I). I have two major concerns about this. 1) should we have people on board the aircraft; away from the jetway; who cannot operate doors? We cannot shut them in because there could be an emergency and they would have no way to get out and by leaving the doors open; the aircraft is susceptible to damage. 2) should not the crew that towed the plane back to the gate have noticed all the water and notified someone?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A319 forward cabin floor area became water saturated after the door was left open during a rain period because the cleaning crew on board was not allowed or trained to close the forward door.

Narrative: This report concerns a flooded aircraft and the procedures used by third party cleaners. We arrived at the airplane and I was one of the first to board; there was a very noticeable squishing and I looked down to see standing water in the whole forward entry area. I contacted Maintenance Control who arranged to have the area dried and for the electronics bays to be inspected for any water that may have leaked down. I told the Gate Agent to delay boarding until the problem was resolved and she contacted the Supervisor in Charge (I didn't get his name). Everyone worked very hard to resolve the problem including the Supervisor. It turns out that the aircraft was parked off gate and the cleaning crew had to be shuttled out to do their job AND they are not trained/allowed to open or close the aircraft doors. While they were cleaning; it rained very hard and by the time they went back to Operations to get someone to close the door; the forward entry was more than saturated. There was no wet/dry vacuum available and the Supervisor found a couple of big boxes of shop towels that did a very good job of absorbing most of the water. The Contract Mechanic cleared the E/E bays and was satisfied with the cabin cleanup job (as was I). I have two major concerns about this. 1) Should we have people on board the aircraft; away from the jetway; who cannot operate doors? We cannot shut them in because there could be an emergency and they would have no way to get out and by leaving the doors open; the aircraft is susceptible to damage. 2) Should not the crew that towed the plane back to the gate have noticed all the water and notified someone?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.