Narrative:

The flight attendant (flight attendant) came up about 30 minutes prior to departure and said there was a smell; similar to when a gas stove is turned on but not lit; around the exit row. I was eating and asked the first officer (first officer) to go check it out. He came back and said the report was accurate; so I called maintenance. I was busy eating and asked mx (maintenance) if he wanted me to write it up; and he said no. He came on and said he had smelled something outside approaching the plane. Once I was done eating; I went back and smelled for myself. It was just as described. The confusing thing was that I had never smelled anything like it before; nor could myself; any passengers; maintenance or the flight attendants determine what it could be. We continued trying to solve the problem; going up and down the cabin seeing if it was stronger one place versus the other; and seeing if it was dissipating. We did have a family of four leave the flight; english was not their first language so I am unsure if they understood my briefings. As we were dealing with that; we called operations to notify them of the delay. Shortly after; our mechanic came up and said they noticed a ramp sweeping machine that runs on propane nearby. Then operations called and said it was a tug nearby that was leaking fuel. With this information; we decided we would pushback and see if it goes away after we left the gate area. We did and checked with the flight attendant twice during taxi to get an update. The first time she said it was dissipating; and on the before takeoff check to the line; she said it was gone. During descent; in the mid-teens; we got a call saying the smell was back. It wasn't busy so we asked for a quicker route to the airport; which was granted and we landed uneventfully. I have no good answer as to why I didn't write this up. I have thought about it since I got off the phone with maintenance in ZZZ1; and I cannot think of a reason why I decided to not write this up. Referring to [the] manual. Mechanical irregularities; D. Reporting mechanical irregularities; it does not specifically state to write anything in the mx log. It simply states if the item is notice prior to block out; to contact maintenance and they will determine the action required to correct or defer the irregularity. I will re-write to read that any time maintenance is contacted; a write muse ensue.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-700 flight crew reported an uneventful flight after experiencing a fume event during preflight. Captain added he did not enter a logbook discrepancy prior to departure.

Narrative: The FA (Flight Attendant) came up about 30 minutes prior to departure and said there was a smell; similar to when a gas stove is turned on but not lit; around the exit row. I was eating and asked the FO (First Officer) to go check it out. He came back and said the report was accurate; so I called Maintenance. I was busy eating and asked MX (Maintenance) if he wanted me to write it up; and he said no. He came on and said he had smelled something outside approaching the plane. Once I was done eating; I went back and smelled for myself. It was just as described. The confusing thing was that I had never smelled anything like it before; nor could myself; any passengers; Maintenance or the flight attendants determine what it could be. We continued trying to solve the problem; going up and down the cabin seeing if it was stronger one place versus the other; and seeing if it was dissipating. We did have a family of four leave the flight; English was not their first language so I am unsure if they understood my briefings. As we were dealing with that; we called OPS to notify them of the delay. Shortly after; our mechanic came up and said they noticed a ramp sweeping machine that runs on propane nearby. Then Operations called and said it was a tug nearby that was leaking fuel. With this information; we decided we would pushback and see if it goes away after we left the gate area. We did and checked with the flight attendant twice during taxi to get an update. The first time she said it was dissipating; and on the before takeoff check to the line; she said it was gone. During descent; in the mid-teens; we got a call saying the smell was back. It wasn't busy so we asked for a quicker route to the airport; which was granted and we landed uneventfully. I have no good answer as to why I didn't write this up. I have thought about it since I got off the phone with Maintenance in ZZZ1; and I cannot think of a reason why I decided to not write this up. Referring to [the] manual. Mechanical Irregularities; D. Reporting Mechanical Irregularities; it does not specifically state to write anything in the MX Log. It simply states if the item is notice prior to block out; to contact Maintenance and they will determine the action required to correct or defer the irregularity. I will re-write to read that any time Maintenance is contacted; a write muse ensue.

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.