Emb-145LR flight crew reported a jammed elevator in cruise flight at FL310. They declared an emergen...

Narrative:

While cruising at 31;000 ft the autopilot started oscillating above and below the altitude by a couple hundred feet. Then the autopilot failed. The captain took control and flew the airplane and noticed that the elevator was not very effective. We descended out of rvsm airspace to comply with the regulations. We decided that it was a jammed elevator and did the memory item and QRH procedures for the event. Upon pulling the elevator disconnect we found that the captain's side was still jammed but the first officer side was free. We were at this point descending; so we determined it would be best to declare an emergency with approach control and land as scheduled.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-145LR flight crew reported a jammed elevator in cruise flight at FL310. They declared an emergency and per the procedure pulled the elevator disconnect and freed the First Officer's elevator; allowing them to continue to a normal landing.

Narrative: While cruising at 31;000 FT the autopilot started oscillating above and below the altitude by a couple hundred feet. Then the autopilot failed. The Captain took control and flew the airplane and noticed that the elevator was not very effective. We descended out of RVSM airspace to comply with the regulations. We decided that it was a jammed elevator and did the memory item and QRH procedures for the event. Upon pulling the elevator disconnect we found that the Captain's side was still jammed but the First Officer side was free. We were at this point descending; so we determined it would be best to declare an emergency with Approach Control and land as scheduled.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1081901
Time
Date	201304
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Elevator
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

Emb-145LR flight crew reported a jammed elevator in cruise flight at FL310. They declared an emergency and per the procedure pulled the elevator disconnect and freed the first officer's elevator; allowing them to continue to a normal landing.