CRJ-700 flight crew reported returning to departure airport after experiencing electrical system malfunctions.
Synopsis
CRJ-700 flight crew reported returning to departure airport after experiencing electrical system malfunctions.
Narrative
Taxied out and got a gen 2 off caution; reset the gen and all was good. Taxied onto runway and received gen off caution again. I reached up and reset the incorrect gen and the power went off momentarily for 1 second. that caused our IRS to reset so we elected to pull off the runway and let them reset. During that time I reset the number 2 generator again and all was fine. I elected to start the APU just in case the generator decided to kick off again in the air. I had flown this aircraft last week and was aware of the generator issue but following the QRH if it resets it's good to go. We proceeded to take off and above 80 knots received an AC Service Bus caution. I elected to continue the takeoff. The message went away and at about 1;500 ft. a battery charger caution appeared. At about 3;000 ft. the Service Bus caution returned and we started to smell an electrical burning smell. I looked at the electrical page and saw that the AC bus 2 was being powered. Moments later the burning smell increased and the ac bus shed its load entirely. At that point I told ATC that we needed to return to the field immediately. We [requested assistance] for a possible fire. We descended quickly back towards [the] runway after completing the QRH procedure. We landed and taxied to the gate without incident. Upon maintenance inspection a circuit board shorted out and then started the GCU on fire.
Second reporter narrative
We taxied out to [the] runway with no incident; as we lined up on Runway XL we got a Gen 2 off" caution message. The Captain reached up and accidentally reset gen 1 which caused our IRS to reset and needed to be realigned. We taxied off the runway onto the taxiway to allow our IRS to reset. During this time the Captain reset gen 2 (which caused the message to disappear) and started the APU. He also told me that he flew the same aircraft last week and it did the same thing to him. We lined up again and on our takeoff roll we received an "AC service bus" caution message; the Captain told me to continue and I did. After takeoff at approximately 1;500 ft. we could smell some sort of electrical burning and we [requested priority handling] to return to ZZZ. We landed and taxied to the gate without incident. After maintenance inspection we saw that GCU2 was burnt and inoperative."
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.