Date: 201409
Local time of day: 0001-0600
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Flight conditions: VMC
Aircraft: DC-10 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight phase: Parked
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Second reporter function: Pilot Flying; First Officer
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: Pre-flight
Result: Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Contributing factors: Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Human Factors
Primary problem: Ambiguous

Narrative: Dangerous goods (DG) agent presented HAZ paperwork for First Officer (FO) to go back and inspect HAZ can. FO went back to inspect DG and soon came back to the cockpit noting that there was noxious chemical odor emanating from the haz container. I went back with the FO and noted that I could smell the odor before even going through the small door leading to the upper deck of the airplane. I entered the haz can and noted that the odor was very strong. I bent over to smell the DG on the right side of the can to 'look' for the odor and quickly eliminated the right side of the can as the source. Loaded on the left side of the can; among other things were 5 or six buckets of paint Class 3. I leaned over to smell and determined that the smell was coming from the gray buckets of paint (Class 3) Since it wasn't obvious which bucket it was and because a few of the buckets had other hazardous cargo and first overnight packages; I made the decision to have the DG agent remove all of the Class 3 Gray paint buckets. The DG agents accommodated my decision quickly and professionally. As it turned out; one of the pour tops was where the liquid was coming out. As soon as buckets were removed; the noxious odor cleared quickly from the haz can. Human error caused this event; I believe. I'm not sure what the protocol is for the inital loading of dg into the haz cans is but after the haz can is loaded and it's freight is tied down with netting and the haz can doors installed until its loaded on an aircraft; the doors should be opened; at least for a final inspection. This may have avoided pushing back 23 minutes late and having to deal with this near push time. Open and recheck haz container before loading it on an aircraft.


Second narrative: Dangerous Goods emitting odor. During my inspection of the DG; I noticed a strong odor as I entered the main cargo area. As I entered the Haz can; the odor was strong; best described as a noxious chemical smell. There was no evidence of any leaking fluid from the suspect Class 3 Hazmat containers. I informed the DG agent that the odor was not acceptable and returned to the flight deck to inform the Captain of the situation. The Captain came back to the Haz can to verify; and agreed that the fumes were emitting from the Class 3 Flammable liquid containers/buckets. As the specific suspect container/s could not be identified; all of the Flammable liquid containers/buckets were removed from the aircraft. Once removed from the aircraft; the gaseous chemical odor was verified by the DG agent to be coming from the sealed pour spout at the top of the container. Once suspect DG was removed there was no longer any noticeable odor in Haz can. I reinspected Haz can and was satisfied it was safe and secure. Per the FOM; we requested new DG paper work reflecting the change and also received a new weight and balance reflecting the removal of the DG.It was moderately windy and this may have contributed to the odor not being discovered by the preparing DG agent during the loading process. Once the DG was in an enclosed environment; the odor became apparent.


Synopsis: Air Cargo flight crew describes the events surrounding the discovery of a leaking bucket of flammable paint in the Hazmat container. The paint is removed and the flight departs late.