A crj flight crew returned to their departure airport when the aircraft failed to pressurize. Mainte...

Narrative:

We were climbing through 10;000 feet when we received a cabin altitude caution message followed by a cabin altitude warning message. The captain was the flying pilot and disconnected the autopilot so he could stop the aircraft from climbing. ATC allowed us to stop the climb at 10;000 feet. The captain then assumed control of the radios and flight controls and told me to perform the QRH procedures. I followed all QRH procedures; but we still couldn't get the aircraft to pressurize. The door synoptic page said that all of the doors were closed. The captain told ATC that we were going to return to our departure airport but would need to burn fuel so we wouldn't land above 47;000 pounds. I notified the flight attendant of the situation and then made an announcement to the passengers letting them know why we were returning. We then landed and maintenance met the aircraft. Upon inspection of the aircraft maintenance informed us that the cargo door was not closed properly even though the door synoptic page said that it was closed. The improper closing of the cargo door prevented the aircraft from pressurizing normally.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ Flight Crew returned to their departure airport when the aircraft failed to pressurize. Maintenance discovered an improperly closed cargo door that was not detected by the aircraft door warning system.

Narrative: We were climbing through 10;000 feet when we received a CABIN ALT caution message followed by a CABIN ALT warning message. The Captain was the flying pilot and disconnected the autopilot so he could stop the aircraft from climbing. ATC allowed us to stop the climb at 10;000 feet. The Captain then assumed control of the radios and flight controls and told me to perform the QRH procedures. I followed all QRH procedures; but we still couldn't get the aircraft to pressurize. The door synoptic page said that all of the doors were closed. The Captain told ATC that we were going to return to our departure airport but would need to burn fuel so we wouldn't land above 47;000 pounds. I notified the Flight Attendant of the situation and then made an announcement to the passengers letting them know why we were returning. We then landed and maintenance met the aircraft. Upon inspection of the aircraft maintenance informed us that the cargo door was NOT closed properly even though the door synoptic page said that it was closed. The improper closing of the cargo door prevented the aircraft from pressurizing normally.

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.

Attributes
ACN	932647
Time
Date	201102
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Regional Jet CL65 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Cargo Door
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

A crj flight crew returned to their departure airport when the aircraft failed to pressurize. Maintenance discovered an improperly closed cargo door that was not detected by the aircraft door warning system.