CRJ-200 Captain reported after takeoff; the remaining air conditioning pack malfunctioned. The flight crew elected to make an air turn back and precautionary landing at departure airport.

Date: 2022-03 · Aircraft: Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200) · Phase: climb

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy

Synopsis

CRJ-200 Captain reported after takeoff; the remaining air conditioning pack malfunctioned. The flight crew elected to make an air turn back and precautionary landing at departure airport.

Narrative

I was the pilot monitoring with FO (First Officer) flying. We had the left PACK deferred and before the flight went through the MEL and discussed the procedure we would follow transferring bleeds from APU to engines after takeoff. We noted a very recent flight (possibly the same day) had a PACK high pressure issue under the same circumstances; and agreed to be extra cautious when doing the transfer. Unrelated; but on push back the ground spoilers deployed for some reason. They then retracted at some point leaving the IB ground spoiler fault status message. This caused us to spend about 15 minutes running a fault reset; which was successful. After lift off and at a safe altitude (about 5;000 ft.) as the procedure prescribes; FO decreased the thrust and I transferred the bleeds using the exact procedure from the MEL. (decrease thrust; open right 10th and close the LCV (Load Control Valve) and ISOL (Isolation Valve); etc). The pack initially worked fine; we increased thrust to normal and probably a minute or two later the PACK turned off. It gave no cautions or indications; we could feel the aircraft lose airflow and start to depressurize. At this point we were coming through 9;000 ft. and we asked to level off. We stayed at 9k for about maybe 10 minutes while I attempted to reset the pack. I turned it off and on about 3 times monitoring the ECS (Environmental Control System) page with no luck. At this point we received word from Dispatch to return to ZZZ and we turned around and requested a lower altitude; ending at 4;000 ft. and I performed the unpressurized flight QRH procedure. I informed the passengers and the FA (Flight Attendant) that we would be returning to ZZZ and apologized for the uncomfortable cabin. Closer to the field we determined that we would be close to max landing weight and FO suggested we drop the gear to help burn extra fuel. We then were about to turn final I requested a single 360 to make sure we were within weight. We landed normally and we were given a gate and pulled right in. Faulty PACK with single pack deferred; or faulty RH 10th stage valve.Dispatch of a single PACK airplane with a previous high press write up could/should be avoided. If I would have had more time I would have contacted AIRINC (I was about to call but right then we were ACARSed back for the return) and gotten more information on things I could have tried; such as attempting to bleed from the APU again or retrying the 10th stage valve. However; after feeling and hearing about how uncomfortable the cabin was; and performing the unpressurized procedure to return to ZZZ my focus was on a safe landing back at base.

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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.