Flight Crew Commercial
Workload; Troubleshooting; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Distraction; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural MEL / CDL
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Maintenance Action; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft; MEL; Procedure
During the climb out a FLAP FAIL Master Caution Message illuminated on the EICAS. Our flaps were already at zero degrees. At that point; I was pilot flying and the Captain completed the proper QRH procedure. We declared an emergency and continued the flight to our filed destination. I became the pilot not flying as briefed when we were below 18;000 FT. We coordinated with ATC to use Runway 28; as it is the longest runway. We flew the approach and landed without incident. We had an MEL for FLAP LOW SPEED that we were complying with for the previous five legs we flew. Also; it was noted by the Captain at the beginning of our first leg today that FLAP LOW SPEED had been MEL'ed multiple times on this particular aircraft. The Captain even made his point to Maintenance personnel in person at our destination when this issue was getting MEL'ed today. Maintenance decided to MEL the FLAP LOW SPEED yet again. I believe the underlying threat and eventual cause of FLAP FAIL was the fact that the core problem was never fixed. By just continuing to MEL a potentially dangerous problem a real problem occurred. I believe that MEL's that are persistent and keep recurring on the same aircraft are an absolute safety hazard.
An EMB145 EICAS alerted FLAP FAIL during climb after the aircraft had flown multiple flights with a FLAP LOW SPEED EICAS alert. An emergency was declared and the flight continued to its filed destination.