An air carrier pilot reported refusing an aircraft for passenger surface and while conducting a ferr...

Narrative:

The plane landed the night before with an emergency due to loud banging and vibration. Upon communication with the inbound crew we felt the plane was not sufficiently repaired for passenger service. We refused the plane for passenger service but elected to do a pilots only ferry. In route the plane started making the same loud banging noises that were previously described and they reverberated throughout the aircraft. We elected to [request priority handling] and upon slowing to 250 kts. Indicated the banging stopped. We proceeded to an uneventful landing. I will add that ATC kept us quite high and we had to make a higher than normal rate of descent. The aircraft was stable in VFR by 600 ft.maintenance believed the aircraft was repaired but the description given by the inbound crew of the issues experienced did not coincide with the repair. Maintenance found a loose piece of rubber seal but the inbound crew was adamant that the problem was more serious in nature. I feel the company should have conducted a test flight with qualified test pilots before returning the aircraft to passenger service.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier pilot reported refusing an aircraft for passenger surface and while conducting a ferry flight previously reported banging sounds and vibration occurred.

Narrative: The plane landed the night before with an emergency due to loud banging and vibration. Upon communication with the inbound crew we felt the plane was not sufficiently repaired for passenger service. We refused the plane for passenger service but elected to do a pilots only ferry. In route the plane started making the same loud banging noises that were previously described and they reverberated throughout the aircraft. We elected to [Request Priority Handling] and upon slowing to 250 kts. indicated the banging stopped. We proceeded to an uneventful landing. I will add that ATC kept us quite high and we had to make a higher than normal rate of descent. The Aircraft was stable in VFR by 600 ft.Maintenance believed the aircraft was repaired but the description given by the inbound crew of the issues experienced did not coincide with the repair. Maintenance found a loose piece of rubber seal but the inbound crew was adamant that the problem was more serious in nature. I feel the Company should have conducted a test flight with qualified Test pilots before returning the aircraft to passenger service.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1726914
Time
Date	202002
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZDV.ARTCC
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A321
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine Indications
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Total 22800
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

An air carrier pilot reported refusing an aircraft for passenger surface and while conducting a ferry flight previously reported banging sounds and vibration occurred.