An emb-145 flight crew returned to their departure airport shortly after takeoff when they received ...

Narrative:

Took off from runway 23R and continued runway heading. Around 2500 feet departure had us make a right turn. In the turn we got a fuel imbalance message. I looked down at the fuel and saw we were dropping fuel out of the right tank quickly. At that point I told the first officer to look out the window and see if he could see any fuel off the wing. He replied saying the fuel is coming off the wing tip. At that point I told him to turn the autopilot on; and to turn the fuel pump off on that wing; cross feed open; and to were returning to the field. We stopped our climb at 5000 as ATC told us to return to 4000. I spoke to the flight attendant and the passengers to let them know we were returning to our departure airport where we landed safely. When we landed the fuel was showing 3000 in the left tank and 2400 in the right tank.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An EMB-145 flight crew returned to their departure airport shortly after takeoff when they received a fuel imbalance message and observed a fuel stream exiting the right wingtip. Maintenance was unable to duplicate the problem and returned the aircraft to service.

Narrative: Took off from runway 23R and continued runway heading. Around 2500 feet departure had us make a right turn. In the turn we got a FUEL IMBALANCE message. I looked down at the fuel and saw we were dropping fuel out of the right tank quickly. At that point I told the First Officer to look out the window and see if he could see any fuel off the wing. He replied saying the fuel is coming off the wing tip. At that point I told him to turn the autopilot on; and to turn the fuel pump off on that wing; cross feed open; and to were returning to the field. We stopped our climb at 5000 as ATC told us to return to 4000. I spoke to the flight attendant and the passengers to let them know we were returning to our departure airport where we landed safely. When we landed the fuel was showing 3000 in the left tank and 2400 in the right tank.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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	1241708
Time
Date	201502
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel System
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

An emb-145 flight crew returned to their departure airport shortly after takeoff when they received a fuel imbalance message and observed a fuel stream exiting the right wingtip. Maintenance was unable to duplicate the problem and returned the aircraft to service.