Narrative:

As we were taxiing onto the runway my first officer noticed the oil quantity on the left engine dropped from 12 pints to 7 pints. We pulled off the runway; shut the left engine down; thinking we had an oil leak; and taxied back to the gate to have maintenance look at it. Maintenance came on board and said the oil quantity was low at 7 pints but there was no sign of any oil leak. They filled the engine back up to 16 pints and did an idle-engine run and no leaks were found. Maintenance said the problem was a quantity indicator had stuck indicating a higher quantity than we had; and taxiing onto the runway had corrected the reading. We then taxied back out; and took off. Approximately 20 KTS prior to V1 we noticed a smell and looked to see if any fire lights were on; which they were not; so I continued the take-off. Just after raising the gear; we got a call from the back saying that the cabin was filling up with smoke. The flight attendant said the smoke was increasing; and going through about 1;000 ft; we started getting smoke in the cockpit also. We put on our oxygen masks; declared an emergency; and told departure we needed to return to the airport immediately due to smoke in the cabin. Departure cleared us to 5;000 ft and a left turn to 060. After a couple of minutes; the smoke in the cockpit cleared out. I gave the aircraft to the first officer to fly while I briefed the passengers and gave a tentative emergency briefing to the flight attendants. I told them we were returning back to the airport and I did not anticipate an evacuation due to the fact that the smoke was starting to clear up in the cabin at this time. When abeam the approach end of the runway; we called the runway in sight and were cleared for a visual approach to the runway. We were also given a single frequency approach that had the tower and fire chief on that frequency. I informed the fire chief that I would be stopping on the runway to be sure there was no more smoke or fire on the aircraft; to have him look the airplane over prior to clearing the runway. We landed overweight at 148;500 pounds stopped straight ahead on the runway and informed the passengers to remain seated. The fire chief indicated there was no sign of fire or smoke coming from the aircraft; and the flight attendants told me the smoke had cleared up. I then elected to taxi clear the runway and taxied to the gate.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier twin jet returned to the departure airport due to smoke of unknown origin in the cabin and cockpit.

Narrative: As we were taxiing onto the runway my First Officer noticed the oil quantity on the left engine dropped from 12 pints to 7 pints. We pulled off the runway; shut the left engine down; thinking we had an oil leak; and taxied back to the gate to have Maintenance look at it. Maintenance came on board and said the oil quantity was low at 7 pints but there was no sign of any oil leak. They filled the engine back up to 16 pints and did an idle-engine run and no leaks were found. Maintenance said the problem was a quantity indicator had stuck indicating a higher quantity than we had; and taxiing onto the runway had corrected the reading. We then taxied back out; and took off. Approximately 20 KTS prior to V1 we noticed a smell and looked to see if any fire lights were on; which they were not; so I continued the take-off. Just after raising the gear; we got a call from the back saying that the cabin was filling up with smoke. The Flight Attendant said the smoke was increasing; and going through about 1;000 FT; we started getting smoke in the cockpit also. We put on our oxygen masks; declared an emergency; and told Departure we needed to return to the airport immediately due to smoke in the cabin. Departure cleared us to 5;000 FT and a left turn to 060. After a couple of minutes; the smoke in the cockpit cleared out. I gave the aircraft to the First Officer to fly while I briefed the passengers and gave a tentative emergency briefing to the Flight Attendants. I told them we were returning back to the airport and I did not anticipate an evacuation due to the fact that the smoke was starting to clear up in the cabin at this time. When abeam the approach end of the runway; we called the runway in sight and were cleared for a visual approach to the runway. We were also given a single frequency approach that had the Tower and Fire Chief on that frequency. I informed the Fire Chief that I would be stopping on the runway to be sure there was no more smoke or fire on the aircraft; to have him look the airplane over prior to clearing the runway. We landed overweight at 148;500 LBS stopped straight ahead on the runway and informed the passengers to remain seated. The Fire Chief indicated there was no sign of fire or smoke coming from the aircraft; and the Flight Attendants told me the smoke had cleared up. I then elected to taxi clear the runway and taxied to the gate.

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.