Some answers
As an Airbus A330/340 pilot, theres a few questions on here Id like to answer:
Interflug, when any airplane is built, the weight is calculated by the design engineers as weight is one of the biggest enemys, if you like, of aircraft, in that, the heavier they are, the more fuel they burn etc etc. When the aircraft is built, they are weighed, and in the aircraft we have a revenue and a training weight index. Revenue includes everything, crew, catering, the works. Baggage and cargo are loaded and we then have our ZFW, which is sent to us by dispatch, and which we double check on our loadsheet. We also know how much fuel is on board, in our airline, we are given the fuel in Litres, multiply this by the Specific Gravity to calculate the weight in KGs, we add that to our ZFW and that is the aircraft Gross Weight. You are correct in that this will decide our max alts. There is no discprepancy allowed with the weight.
ILS26L....highly unlikely, we fly to probably a hundred destinations, and we have engineers at every port. Usual practice is to contract out the home ports airline engineers that are rated on type, and train them up on your airlines procedures etc. I cant think of a "minor" fault that would lead to this.
dougydog, the 'Cabin Vert Speed" message on the ACARS was probably because the vertical speed was above 1800ft/min, which doesnt cause an ECAM msg, the value pulsates on the System Display...the ECAM warning pops up when the Cabin Alt is above 9550ft. The masks drop at approx 14000ft. Cabin Alt.