EMB-170 flight crew reported a 'burning plastic odor' during climb after the failure of the flight guidance panel. Priority handling was requested and provided to departure airport where a safe landing was executed.
Synopsis
EMB-170 flight crew reported a 'burning plastic odor' during climb after the failure of the flight guidance panel. Priority handling was requested and provided to departure airport where a safe landing was executed.
Narrative
While on climbout in ZZZ; we experienced a wind shear caution; to which we preformed the escape maneuver. Shortly after during the climb; the FO (First Officer) and a I noticed the guidance panel went completely dark followed shortly after by a burning plastic smell filling the cockpit. I called the FA's (Flight Attendants) to see if they could smell it as well. They agreed; but said it wasn't that strong. I decided to give it a few minutes as we had just used max thrust and the bleeds closed.After about 2 minutes the smell became very strong. We decided to request priority handling to ZZZ. After dawning our masks and working the QRC; the FO and I started to experience communication issues with our masks. ATC and the FA's could not hear us and that became a major issue. After teaching the FO how to put the mask away; we regained communication with the FA's and ATC. We descended down and elected to put the masks back in so we could communicate with ATC and the FA's.At this point; we worked the QRH pushing the dump button; but decided to stop there. We were close to ZZZ and I decided turning off the IDG's (Integrated Drive Generator) and deploying the rat was more unsafe than just landing. We then headed to ZZZ asked for the trucks to do a visual inspection upon landing for any signs of fire or smoke. Upon landing; we were told everything was clear and returned to the gate.
Second reporter narrative
[Climbing through] 500 ft. after take-off; we experienced a wind shear advisory. The Captain was flying. We performed the wind shear escape maneuver and proceeded on the departure. At about 10;000 ft.; the entire guidance panel back-light went dark. Moments later; both the Captain and I started to smell fumes; almost like burning plastic. The Captain asked for my opinion and I said I thought we should return to ZZZ. He and I agreed after little deliberation that the smell was getting worse; and he called for the Smoke/Fire/Fumes QRC. We donned our oxygen masks and ran the QRC. During this time; the Captain notified ATC that we had smelled smoke in the cockpit and were requesting priority handling. The microphones in the oxygen masks were seemingly faulty however; and made communication with the Flight Attendants and ATC nearly impossible. We began to descend back down to 10;000 ft. per ATC instruction; and once we got there; struggling to communicate with the masks on; the Captain chose to take his mask off and resort back to using the headset. As the smell and fumes seemed to not get any worse; this seemed to be the right decision and I also stored the oxygen mask and put back on my headset. ATC asked if we'd like to go to ZZZ1 or ZZZ; the Captain decided to return to ZZZ; a decision I agreed with. I made a PA to the passengers informing them of our decision to return to ZZZ due to an issue in the flight deck. We continued with the QRH; but the Captain decided to utilize his authority and not perform an emergency descent; deploy the rat; or kill the IDG's (Integrated Drive Generator) as the smoke was not visible; the fumes were not getting any worse; and we were in a stabilized descent to an approach (It should be noted we did push the dump button and the bleeds). ATC inquired if we wanted fire trucks to meet us on the ground. We said yes. After landing; Tower advised us to pull off the runway and I spoke on the advised frequency with the fire trucks. They did a visual inspection of the airplane and confirmed no smoke or fire could be seen.With clearance; we then taxied to the gate.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.