Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Flight Crew Commercial
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft
We were cruising at FL270 and I was pilot flying when we got a call from a Flight Attendant. The Captain said that the Flight Attendant told her that; the commuting/deadheading Captain in the back said; 'The outside window seal on seat X DF was flapping'. While the Captain was talking to the Flight Attendant again or the commuting Captain again; we heard a loud pop. This happens just seconds after the Captain was telling me about the window. It was a loud pop from rapid decompression that I remember hearing from training in school. We also noticed a bit of engine vibration. I thought we must've been pretty close to decompression or losing pressurization real soon or maybe the outside window must've popped out. The Captain said that she saw some kind of message and that we should descend immediately. I glanced at ED 1 and 2; I did not see any message and the pressurization seems to be normal. However I was very concerned that the rest of the window could fail and we could be in a rapid decompression. The Captain directed to me to conduct an emergency descent. We followed the checklist and descend to 10;000 FT. During the descent; we never pushed the passenger oxygen because the aircraft was pressurizing. Later the Captain was busy communicating with the back. While in the descent; she found out that the outside window seal was gone. Meanwhile I calculated the fuel burn and thought we could fly at 10;000 FT all the way to destination and the aircraft was pressurizing. We chose to stay at 10;000 FT and not climb back up in case of other pressurization or decompression issues. We did declare an emergency with ATC during the descent. However we canceled the emergency after reaching 10;000 FT. During the post flight you could see that the outside window was basically shattered or popped out. It wasn't until we got on the ground that I noticed the engine sounded weird or different. The Captain described the engine as if it was a propeller engine. There were at least 5 damaged blades on the right engine. Preflight walk around prior to the flight did not show any sign of a damaged window or malfunction of equipment. We initiated the emergency descent via the QRH and the Captain declared an emergency. We descended down to 10;000 FT. At some point during the descent we determined that the aircraft was pressurizing and then we switched control. So at that point I became pilot flying again and the Captain as pilot not flying.
CRJ700 First Officer reports the loss of a cabin window seal at FL270 causing a loud pop but no loss of pressurization. An emergency descent is initiated as a precaution and the flight continues to destination. Post flight reveals damage to the right engine.