Narrative:

Shortly after departure; we noticed baggage door open indication on the EICAS and an indication on my mfd of the baggage door not being closed. We were climbing through about 1500ft and told ATC that we might have to return to the airport. ATC told us we could have a vector towards the airport and we accepted. The captain declared an emergency and told ATC souls on board and fuel on board. On the vector towards right downwind for xxl we pulled out our company manual and read the procedure for baggage door open. We made a crew decision to return to the airport to make sure the door was closed. We checked and were overweight; so we pulled our company manual and planned for the procedure for an overweight landing. We told ATC we were ready to land and ATC gave us a vector to final for a visual approach to xxl. We accomplished the descent; approach; and landing checklists. On final; the captain reminded me that we needed 300ft/min descent on touchdown or less. We landed less than that and taxied off the runway. An airfield rescue and fire fighting fire truck was waiting on the taxiway and I told ATC that we wouldn't need it. We taxied to the gate. Faulty baggage door warning system was assumed and the MEL provided after we were on the ground and talked to company maintenance. Our maintenance guys are really good; but the only thing I could think off is less time between inspections. I feel comfortable with our maintenance department and this seems like an isolated event.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An EMB 145 BAGGAGE DOOR OPEN EICAS alerted after takeoff. An emergency was declared and the aircraft returned to the departure airport.

Narrative: Shortly after departure; we noticed BAGGAGE DOOR OPEN indication on the EICAS and an indication on my MFD of the baggage door not being closed. We were climbing through about 1500ft and told ATC that we might have to return to the airport. ATC told us we could have a vector towards the airport and we accepted. The Captain declared an emergency and told ATC souls on board and fuel on board. On the vector towards right downwind for XXL we pulled out our Company Manual and read the procedure for BAGGAGE DOOR OPEN. We made a crew decision to return to the airport to make sure the door was closed. We checked and were overweight; so we pulled our Company Manual and planned for the procedure for an overweight landing. We told ATC we were ready to land and ATC gave us a vector to final for a visual approach to XXL. We accomplished the descent; approach; and landing checklists. On final; the Captain reminded me that we needed 300ft/min descent on touchdown or less. We landed less than that and taxied off the runway. An Airfield Rescue and Fire Fighting fire truck was waiting on the taxiway and I told ATC that we wouldn't need it. We taxied to the gate. Faulty baggage door warning system was assumed and the MEL provided after we were on the ground and talked to Company Maintenance. Our maintenance guys are really good; but the only thing I could think off is less time between inspections. I feel comfortable with our Maintenance Department and this seems like an isolated event.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.