A widebody international aircraft captain and relief first officer reported strange noises from lowe...

Narrative:

We departed europe. During an intermediate level off at FL240 when we felt a loud muffled bang in the floor of the cockpit. All aircraft system indications showed normal. I checked with the lead to make sure the cabin was secure. All was normal except for the thud. About [eight minutes later] and at FL340 came a second mysterious thud. I contacted dispatch and [maintenance] via HF. Our [relief] crew reported the sound seemed to come from the floor of first class. A third bang was felt [later]. We were about twenty minutes out of [a suitable diversion airport] and I decided to land there. We followed the divert checklist and had [maintenance] put in the write up for the thuds and the overweight landing. At [the diversion airport] we found the two forward cargo containers contained pharmaceutical products. On top of these boxes were large heavy plastic paper covered inflatable airbags to prevent the movement of boxes within the containers. In one container we found two burst bags and one inflated bag. In the second tin we found one burst and three inflated airbags. A total of seven airbags; three had burst and four were still intact. No damage to the aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A widebody international aircraft Captain and relief First Officer reported strange noises from lower deck while still over Europe. They diverted and found that some packing material had ruptured causing the noise.

Narrative: We departed Europe. During an intermediate level off at FL240 when we felt a loud muffled bang in the floor of the cockpit. All aircraft system indications showed normal. I checked with the Lead to make sure the cabin was secure. All was normal except for the thud. About [eight minutes later] and at FL340 came a second mysterious thud. I contacted Dispatch and [Maintenance] via HF. Our [relief] crew reported the sound seemed to come from the floor of First Class. A third bang was felt [later]. We were about twenty minutes out of [a suitable diversion airport] and I decided to land there. We followed the divert checklist and had [Maintenance] put in the write up for the thuds and the overweight landing. At [the diversion airport] we found the two forward cargo containers contained pharmaceutical products. On top of these boxes were large heavy plastic paper covered inflatable airbags to prevent the movement of boxes within the containers. In one container we found two burst bags and one inflated bag. In the second tin we found one burst and three inflated airbags. A total of seven airbags; three had burst and four were still intact. No damage to the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1007020
Time
Date	201204
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	LFFF.ARTCC
State Reference	FO
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 24000 Flight Crew Type 6000
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Relief Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 230 Flight Crew Total 2520 Flight Crew Type 230
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A widebody international aircraft captain and relief first officer reported strange noises from lower deck while still over europe. They diverted and found that some packing material had ruptured causing the noise.