EMB145 captain reports diverting for maintenance when the aircraft he is flying begins to produce a ...

Narrative:

The captain and flight attendant deadheaded on the aircraft. During that flight the deadheading captain and flight attendant along with crew working the flight observed a strange and extremely loud noise in the cabin throughout most of the flight. Maintenance was contacted about the problem and contract maintenance was sent to the aircraft to try and replicate the noise. The noise had been observed on this aircraft prior to this flight according to maintenance; but they were unable to replicate it on the ground. The aircraft was signed off and after a delay we commenced the flight. The takeoff and initial climb portions of the flight were normal; but as we climbed through 10;000 feet the flight attendant informed us that the noise was back and even louder than before. According to the flight attendant the noise was throughout the cabin. All EICAS and pressurization indications were normal. After contacting dispatch and maintenance control the determination was made to divert instead of continuing to destination. ATC was contacted and we proceeded to divert. The noise persisted until landing. Although we had no EICAS or instrumentation indications of the noise; the noise was loud and irregular enough that as a crew we decided it was prudent to divert and not continue to destination. A major threat during this flight was workload management; and communicating with dispatch; ATC; maintenance control; and cabin crew and having to make decisions in a short amount of time. As a crew we delegated the duties and used CRM to resolve the issue. Because this issue was written up several times without being able to replicate the issue on the ground; it might have been a good idea to do a maintenance test flight in order to try and replicate the issue after several write ups prior to returning it to service.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB145 Captain reports diverting for maintenance when the aircraft he is flying begins to produce a loud noise in the cabin as it had on the previous flight and as reflected in the maintenance history.

Narrative: The Captain and Flight Attendant deadheaded on the aircraft. During that flight the deadheading Captain and Flight Attendant along with crew working the flight observed a strange and extremely loud noise in the cabin throughout most of the flight. Maintenance was contacted about the problem and Contract Maintenance was sent to the aircraft to try and replicate the noise. The noise had been observed on this aircraft prior to this flight according to Maintenance; but they were unable to replicate it on the ground. The aircraft was signed off and after a delay we commenced the flight. The takeoff and initial climb portions of the flight were normal; but as we climbed through 10;000 feet the Flight Attendant informed us that the noise was back and even louder than before. According to the Flight Attendant the noise was throughout the cabin. All EICAS and pressurization indications were normal. After contacting Dispatch and Maintenance control the determination was made to divert instead of continuing to destination. ATC was contacted and we proceeded to divert. The noise persisted until landing. Although we had no EICAS or instrumentation indications of the noise; the noise was loud and irregular enough that as a crew we decided it was prudent to divert and not continue to destination. A major threat during this flight was workload management; and communicating with Dispatch; ATC; Maintenance Control; and cabin crew and having to make decisions in a short amount of time. As a crew we delegated the duties and used CRM to resolve the issue. Because this issue was written up several times without being able to replicate the issue on the ground; it might have been a good idea to do a maintenance test flight in order to try and replicate the issue after several write ups prior to returning it to service.

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	1090880
Time
Date	201305
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

EMB145 captain reports diverting for maintenance when the aircraft he is flying begins to produce a loud noise in the cabin as it had on the previous flight and as reflected in the maintenance history.