When a landing gear anomaly QRH called for landing at the nearest suitable airport; a CRJ200 flight crew took umbrage at the suggestion from their Dispatcher that they should consider their destination; 160 miles distant; a more suitable alternative than their departure airport 15 to 30NM behind them.
Synopsis
When a landing gear anomaly QRH called for landing at the nearest suitable airport; a CRJ200 flight crew took umbrage at the suggestion from their Dispatcher that they should consider their destination; 160 miles distant; a more suitable alternative than their departure airport 15 to 30NM behind them.
Narrative
After gear retraction; we noticed there was a 'cycling sort of sound' coming from the nose gear bay. Shortly thereafter; we got a nose door open warning. We followed the QRH; notified ATC; Dispatch and Maintenance Control. The checklist called for lowering the landing gear and landing at the nearest suitable airport. We notified ATC that we would be returning to our departure airport; the gear was normal (3 green) and that we would maintain a speed of 200 knots. We did not need priority handling. Note: The gear door open warning went out after the gear was lowered then came on again with the aural warning. The light extinguished upon landing. At about the same time; I notified the Dispatcher that we needed to come back to the departure airport as the checklist called for us to return to the nearest suitable airport. His answer was 'hold on; we are determining whether or not that is the nearest suitable airport. There are several definitions of suitable and we are discussing it.' I told him to go ahead and discuss it while we returned as advised. NOTE: we were only 15 miles out with the gear down; a gear door open warning light and only about 5500lbs of fuel burning about 3000+ lbs per hour. (best guess) We returned to the departure airport after informing the passengers. The flight landed without further problem. This airplane has had a history of this same sort of issue. My suggestion to Dispatchers and Maintenance Control is that if the Captain says he's coming back; don't try to argue with him. The Captain is in the aircraft; has the situation in front of him and unless he is asking for further instructions outside of the normal QRH procedures; does not need to have someone on the ground argue with him when the solution is so obvious. I am very disappointed with the lack of cooperation that I got today.
Second reporter narrative
Our logic was that we were 30 miles from the departure airport vs. 160 miles to our destination. Per the QRH; we would have to have flown 160 miles with the gear extended which may have caused a low fuel issue if we would have flown that far.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.