Hello, this is my first post: I had a whimsical experience with an Airbus A319 jet of the low-cost-carrier Germanwings in Paris Charles de Gaulle II airport: Some minutes before the scheduled take off, with all passengers having already taken their seats, the captain announced that they had found an oil leak under one of the engines and that it would be necessary to figure out if it originated from our plane. It did.
For more than 3 1/2 hours, a mechanic from "Luthansa-Technik" examined the engine and tried to fix what seemed to be wrong with it (the passengers were not allowed to leave the plane). The noises the mechanic produced were terrific and extraordinarily loud - so that a technical layperson did not feel like going with that plane on a night flight.
What was really shocking to me and the other passengers was that the same noise returned under way on cruising level, when the captain just had commenced the dive down to the airport of Cologne. The sound remained till the plane had stopped at the gate. I have attached 2 videos taken with my digital camera, that may document and illustrate the episode.
Now, my only question to all professionals is: Can you imagine and explain to a layperson, what was wrong with our plane - and was it responsible of the captain to take off with a plane in that condition? Leaving the plane, the crew just stated that the sounds we had to listen to in 10.000 meters of altitude were "just normal". "Just normal for a damaged plane", I replied ...
Video 1 (standing on the airfield in Paris):
http://www.t-jey.com/videos/MOV00429.MPG
Video 2 (on cruising level, somewhere above Belgium):
http://www.t-jey.com/videos/MOV00432.MPG
Finally, a shot of the plane:
http://www.t-jey.com/pics/DSC00424.JPG