Narrative:

This occurrence happened on the first day of a three-day trip. We accepted the aircraft after it had been in the hanger the entire day. Upon pushback for the first leg; we received an oil pressure warning accompanied by the aural upon starting engine 1. I remember we accidentally did not start engine 1 first as we should do during first flights. We had started with engine 2 first. I only realized and pointed out the error during the engine 2 start sequence. The captain elected to do a fuel feed check valve test on engine two. We deselected the fuel pumps and got pump press annunciations on engine 2. Then; we started [engine] 1. Oil pressure spiked beyond the arc to around 120. We got an engine oil pressure warning which didn't stop even after oil pressure settled in the green. The captain then shut down engine 1. We pulled back to the gate and maintenance did several checks and signed off the aircraft. We then re boarded and completed the first leg with no incident. On my post flight at the out station; it was apparent there was a significant layer of freezing rain that had built up on the aircraft including a thin layer on the spinners of the engines. I notified the captain and we looked at it together and called maintenance to see how to remove ice from such a sensitive area. The captain informed me maintenance advised the run up would clear the ice. We taxied over the deice pad but had to wait about an hour for another aircraft to get deiced. During that time the captain shut down engine 1 and ran the APU for air conditioning to save fuel. Before pulling into the pad; we started engine 1 again and dropped the APU. We ran the deice checklist engines running and deiced with no issues. I would add the deice personnel seemed a little inexperienced; getting confused with our call sign and mis-reading the deice times to us once complete. We ran the rest of the checklist including the run up. We took off bleeds closed with the APU supplying air for the packs. After takeoff; during the after-landing flow; I swapped the bleeds to the engine and dropped the APU. Around 2 minutes after takeoff I noticed thick black smoke billowing out of the graspers in the cockpit. It smelled like burning plastic. I told the captain I was going on o2. We established mask communications and we discussed the situation and decided to go back to the out station; since it was so close and familiar. We didn't want to be airborne longer than necessary. I [requested priority handling] with departure at that point. The captain transferred controls to me; and I flew and handled ATC communications. We descended to the MSA and I got delay vectors for the ILS while the captain ran the QRH; gave the flight attendant a [report] and sent a quick message to dispatch. We were experiencing moderate turbulence; ice; and freezing rain in flight while being vectored; weather was about 400 feet or so above minimums. Once the captain was done with his duties; we turned back inbound and we decided it would be best if the captain took the landing. We shot the ILS without incident and landed; taxied back to the gate; and deplaned. I'm not sure what caused this event. We did the deice checklist correctly and configured for deicing correctly. The smoke came after swapping bleeds to the engine so maybe it was a pack malfunction or deice fluid somehow burned and entered the air conditioning. I do not have suggestions for avoiding such an incident. From my point of view; it would have been hard to see such an incident coming.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ First Officer reported that smoke in the cockpit resulted in a diversion.

Narrative: This occurrence happened on the first day of a three-day trip. We accepted the aircraft after it had been in the hanger the entire day. Upon pushback for the first leg; we received an oil pressure warning accompanied by the aural upon starting engine 1. I remember we accidentally did not start engine 1 first as we should do during first flights. We had started with engine 2 first. I only realized and pointed out the error during the engine 2 start sequence. The Captain elected to do a fuel feed check valve test on engine two. We deselected the fuel pumps and got pump press annunciations on engine 2. Then; we started [engine] 1. Oil pressure spiked beyond the arc to around 120. We got an engine oil pressure warning which didn't stop even after oil pressure settled in the green. The captain then shut down engine 1. We pulled back to the gate and maintenance did several checks and signed off the aircraft. We then re boarded and completed the first leg with no incident. On my post flight at the out station; it was apparent there was a significant layer of freezing rain that had built up on the aircraft including a thin layer on the spinners of the engines. I notified the Captain and we looked at it together and called Maintenance to see how to remove ice from such a sensitive area. The Captain informed me Maintenance advised the run up would clear the ice. We taxied over the deice pad but had to wait about an hour for another aircraft to get deiced. During that time the Captain shut down engine 1 and ran the APU for air conditioning to save fuel. Before pulling into the pad; we started engine 1 again and dropped the APU. We ran the deice checklist engines running and deiced with no issues. I would add the deice personnel seemed a little inexperienced; getting confused with our call sign and mis-reading the deice times to us once complete. We ran the rest of the checklist including the run up. We took off bleeds closed with the APU supplying air for the packs. After takeoff; during the after-landing flow; I swapped the bleeds to the engine and dropped the APU. Around 2 minutes after takeoff I noticed thick black smoke billowing out of the graspers in the cockpit. It smelled like burning plastic. I told the captain I was going on o2. We established mask communications and we discussed the situation and decided to go back to the out station; since it was so close and familiar. We didn't want to be airborne longer than necessary. I [requested priority handling] with departure at that point. The Captain transferred controls to me; and I flew and handled ATC communications. We descended to the MSA and I got delay vectors for the ILS while the Captain ran the QRH; gave the Flight Attendant a [report] and sent a quick message to Dispatch. We were experiencing moderate turbulence; ice; and freezing rain in flight while being vectored; weather was about 400 feet or so above minimums. Once the Captain was done with his duties; we turned back inbound and we decided it would be best if the Captain took the landing. We shot the ILS without incident and landed; taxied back to the gate; and deplaned. I'm not sure what caused this event. We did the deice checklist correctly and configured for deicing correctly. The smoke came after swapping bleeds to the engine so maybe it was a pack malfunction or deice fluid somehow burned and entered the air conditioning. I do not have suggestions for avoiding such an incident. From my point of view; it would have been hard to see such an incident coming.

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.