2022-10 · NASA ASRS report 1941810
CRJ-700 flight crew reported a loss of numerous systems after takeoff. The flight crew requested priority handling and performed an air turn back and precautionary landing at departure airport.
Shortly after takeoff; crew was climbing out of class bravo airspace following a departure procedure when they experienced heavy precipitation followed by unusual noise from the exterior of the aircraft. Crew then experienced an unreliable airspeed in flight; unreliable PFD; unreliable MFD; AHRS failure; autopilot failure among many other faults. Ultimately the crew contended with 167 faults/failures. Chief among them was a part of the aircraft that departed in flight. (I suspect this allowed copious amounts of water into the avionics bay and circuit board). Crew lost air data; heading information; and altitude information. Crew determined that all information from PFD was unreliable. crew then had a piece of the aircraft that appeared to be a rubber strap or wiring come up from outside the aircraft and beat on the First Officer's (FO's) side window. The crew then noticed all information provided by the MFD such as distance to fix; way points; and moving map was unreliable. Autopilot failed; FADEC 1 and 2 faulted; stab trim and mach trim disconnected. Captain's airspeed indicated 40 knots while FO's side showed increasing airspeed.Crew avoided falling in to a trap of relying on faulty PFD. Captain began hand flying with reference to the standby Integrated Standby Instrument System (ISIS). FO and Observer began calling the most significant faults. Chief among them was unreliable airspeed. FO called out to ATC and pulled the Quick Reference Handbook (QRH). Observation pilot made himself available to the crew. Crew used all available resources to make a decision that would safely conclude the flight. The crew began expanding their team; notably the Caption delegated tasks to contact Dispatch; run QRH; communicate with ATC; communicate with the Crew in back and make a passenger announcement. Decision was made to turn back to departure airport and ATC began giving crew vectors. However; the crew soon found the routing odd as it didn't coincide with information presented on the MFD. The crew then determined the maintenance release was unreliable. Crew looked to compass for some limited guidance. ATC was informed of loss of directional indication and received instructions to turn a specific number of degrees.Crew worked as a team with inside and outside sources and used all available information to eventually get vectored on to a final approach intercept to an ILS. Crew broke out at approximately 800 ft. to observe a scud layer partially obscuring the runway. Crew made a successful landing and taxied to gate without further incident. A piece of the aircraft departed in flight. As there was moderate to heavy precipitation; I expect this allowed a path for water to enter the avionics bay impacting electronics. Crew faced an event that is unlikely to repeat. Crew demonstrated problem solving and decision making; Aircraft handling and adherence to procedures and regulations. The basic skill of flying the aircraft and expanding the team proved invaluable as it would have been impossible to clear so many faults with use of QRH alone.
Upon departure out of ZZZ1 enroute to ZZZ2 climbing out of approximately 12000 ft. to 14000 as pilot flying my airspeed dropped to 40 kts indicated and the First Officer's was showing almost Vmo so I Immediately disconnected the autopilot and referenced the Standby ISIS and called for the unreliable airspeed Quick Reference Handbook (QRH) and then heard a loud pop on the left side of the aircraft and lost ADC and AHRS and then the First Officers failed too. We reported to ATC that we would have to return to ZZZ1 and to standby. We were in extreme precipitation when this occurred and requested radar vectors back to ZZZ1. Shortly after we also had stab trim and mach trim fail; rudder limiter fail; L & R FADEC fault status messages display; and Auto Press 1 fail status message display. Shortly after we started the descent back into ZZZ1 a piece of rubber seal off the nose landing gear door came loose and came up and hit the First Officers windshield and was flapping on it making an extremely loud noise. Initially I thought his windshield wiper was coming off. The PFD and MFDs did come back but weren't reliable. The MFD was completely inconsistent with what ATC was telling us. The DME had also frozen and we didn't have any fixes on the MFD. ATC was able to vector us onto the XX Localizer for the ILS approach and we were able to land safely back in ZZZ1. Upon reaching the gate maintenance met us and informed us we had 167 fault messages in the maintenance release database.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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