Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
During the takeoff roll; we felt an abrupt pull at 80 knots. It felt as if we had a tire blow or hit something. It was very brief but the airplane continued to accelerate as if nothing happened. All engine and EICAS indications were normal. The same thing happened at rotation. The aircraft got airborne without a problem. At about 200 feet AGL it happened again very abruptly. At about 1000 feet AGL the left engine went to idle. Both power levers were in the takeoff detent. I told the FO 'we have a left engine failure' He agreed.  He notified ATC. Tower gave us a heading of 090 and descend to 3000 ft. We were climbing thru 3;800 at that time. I had the FO read the QRC for engine failure. I did not shut the left engine down because it was not on fire and still had a little bit of thrust. I got the visual approach and cleared to land on the longest runway. We landed without incident. We had crash and rescue confirm that our engine was not on fire. We then returned to the gate and deplaned the passengers.The previous crew wrote up an ITT (Interstage Turbine Temperature) exceedance. Maintenance cleared it. Crews should always keep in mind that there could be an engine failure with past engine problems.
[Report narrative contained no additional information.]
CRJ-900 flight crew reported returning to departure airport after the #1 engine rolled back to idle.