EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Diverted; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
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.
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.