2023-03 · NASA ASRS report 1980294
CRJ-900 flight crew reported high engine vibration after takeoff. The decision was made to perform an air turn back and precautionary landing at the departure airport.
End up doing an air return due to high engine vibration on the left engine. On takeoff the left engine vibration went up to 1.9 which is still in the green. Shortly after takeoff it slowly started climbing into the yellow at 2.1; 2.2; 2.3; got all the way up to 2.6 on the climb out. I did mention it to my First Officer (FO) that I didn't like that too much but it should get better once we level off and get it out of climb detent. We leveled off at 14;000 ft. In zzz and when she pulled the power back the vibrations got dramatically worse and went all the way up to 4.0 which is the top of the yellow. ATC asked us to immediately climb and so we put it back into climb thrust and the vibration went back down to the low twos; still in the yellow. I wasn't too concerned because all other engine indications were looking pretty good. The First Officer handed the airplane over to me to eat her dinner. So I have the radios and the airplane and constantly monitoring our engine vibration. It seems pretty stable in the low twos; but again still in the yellow. With it not getting better climbing through the 20;000s; I decide we should level off and run a checklist to see if we can get it in down into the green.We ask ATC if we could level off to run a checklist and we let them know for the climb. The FO put her dinner away and helped me with the checklist. We ran the checklist but could not get the vibration down into the green. That checklist has you cycle the engine to idle and then climb thrust then idle and climb thrust. When we would bring the engine through about 70% the vibrations would spike all the way up to 4.3 and then slowly come back down into the twos; staying in the yellow the entire time. Oil temperature; oil pressure; fuel flow; everything was normal outside of the engine vibration. Since the engine vibration was still in the yellow; we decided to reach out to dispatch and maintenance. Since all engine conditions were normal outside of just the vibration; I didn't see fit to declare an emergency and dispatch wanted us to divert to ZZZ1. On top of the engine indications being normal outside of the vibration on the descent when power is at idle for more than 5 seconds we were able to get the vibration down to 1.9 or 1.8 in the green. On our way down to ZZZ1; dispatch alerted us that they would not be able to take international passengers so they sent us back to ZZZ. Once we leveled off at 12;000 ft.; maintained 250 kts.; the engine vibration stayed in the green all the way to shortly before landing. On final when we are making engine adjustments the vibration went back into the low twos in the yellow. Landed with no issue found a new airplane boarded up launched for ZZZZ.I assume it was from an N1 fan blade not seating correctly.
Had to do an air return due to high engine vibration on the left engine. On takeoff the left engine vibration went up to 1.9 and slowly after takeoff it started climbing into the yellow; 2.1;2.2;2.3. Max engine vibration got to was 2.6. Captain called it out and said that it should get better once we get to level off and out of the climb detent. We leveled off at 14;000 ft. As instructed by ATC and when I went to pull the power to a cruise setting; the engine vibration spiked to 4.0 (top of the yellow). ATC asked us to immediately climb up to a new flight level and once power was added to climb thrust; the vibration went down to low 2s (still yellow). All other engine indications were looking good so far. I handed the aircraft over to the Captain so I could eat my dinner real quick while monitoring the engine vibration.Climbing through 20;000 ft.; the vibrations were not getting better so the Captain decided for us to level off so we can start running through the checklist to see if we could get it back down into the green. We asked ATC to do a position hold and we would let them know when we were ready to continue our climb. I put my dinner away to help the Captain with the checklist. We ran the whole checklist and could not get the vibration down into the green. The QRH had us cycle the thrust lever to idle then back to climb thrust. We did this twice and when we would bring the engine through about 70% the vibrations would spike all the way up to about 4.3 and then slowly come back to the 2s but never going into the green. We contacted dispatch and maintenance and because all other engine indications such as oil temperature and pressure were still green we decided it was not needed to request priority handling at that time. Dispatch told us to divert to ZZZ1 but then changed to divert back to ZZZ due to customs issues with international passengers. Once we leveled off at 12;000 ft. And maintained 250 kts.; the engine vibration stayed in the green all the way to ZZZ. On final; as we were making engine adjustments; the vibration went back into the low 2s in the yellow. I landed with no issues and company found a new airplane which we boarded the passengers and our same crew flew up to ZZZZ.
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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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