Airbus A320 Engine Problem
Hi
Was on a BA A320 (I think) on the way up to Edinburgh from Heathrow a couple of weekends ago and just before pushback the captain said he couldn't get the port engine to start, but that we would taxi out and an engineer would come and have a look at it.
Throughout the taxi and the engineer's fiddling there was a really strange, loud "thumping" sort of noise, which I think was the hydraulics. Really quite alarming but I wasn't overly concerned since it seemed obvious that this aircraft wasn't going anywhere soon. I was thus surprised when after 15 minutes the captain said everything was sorted and we'd be off in five minutes ... which we were!
My questions are:
1) What would cause an engine to simply not start (is it a safety cut-out measure or something, and was it anything to be even remotely concerned about)
2) What was the REALLY lound noise (I fly a lot but have never heard anything like it before, and it lasted for a good 15 minutes).
Thanks.
Helo