Narrative:

Dangerous goods (dg) agent presented haz paperwork for first officer (first officer) to go back and inspect haz can. First officer 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 first officer 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.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: 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.

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.

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.