Regional Jet 700 ER/LR (CRJ700)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
General Declared Emergency; General Evacuated
Procedure; Aircraft
Taxi out as normal; just before we took off we had a GLD unsafe caution message. I looked at the Flight Control page and selected GLD disarm; there was no change in the position; so we decided to pull out of the takeoff line and work the problem out. About the same time my First Officer noticed smoke; after he pointed it out the smoke started to get worse. I decided to turn off the packs; I thought that may be where the smoke was coming from. I called the flight attendants and asked them if they had smoke in the cabin. They said they had smoke too. I then decided to evacuate and told the crew to evacuate; we had a Jumpseater and he helped us with the evacuation. We started to run our Passenger Evacuation Checklist on the Immediate Action Cards. Flight Attendant called to confirm the evacuation and I again confirmed. After we completed the checklist almost all the passengers had been evacuated and the smoke cleared. I checked the airplane for any passengers and handed control to the emergency response unit.Maintenance had been working on our display fans. They had replaced and deferred the display fan. When we shut down the airplane the smoke was gone and I suspected that maybe the display fan had caused the smoke. When the mechanics showed up at the plane they checked the smell by the fan and noticed that it still had a strong smoke smell coming from that compartment.
We were #3 for departure when we got a GLD UNSAFE caution message. Tried to reset the GLD by disarming and rearming twice; message came back. Told Tower we needed to pull out of line to the parallel taxi line. Prior to stopping I noticed smoke from an unknown source starting to fog the cockpit. I immediately shut off both packs (thinking it was an overheated pack) but smoke did not diminish and smelled electrical. Captain called for an evacuation; we both grabbed the immediate action cards and performed the evacuation procedure. Flight Attendant A confirmed smoke in the forward section of the cabin area. I notified Tower of our intentions to evacuate and declared an emergency. Passengers were evacuated out the main cabin door in an orderly fashion without incident. I asked the Captain if he wanted me to retrieve the crash ax and extinguisher; but we both agreed that the smoke was dissipating and all the passengers were confirmed deplaned; so we did not grab these items. Offline Jumpseater helped usher the passengers to a safe area off the active taxiway in front of the aircraft. Flight Attendant A inquired the wind direction but we instructed him to bring the passengers to the safe area in front of the aircraft and off the taxiway.
CRJ-700 flight crew experiences a GLD UNSAFE caution message during taxi out and attempts to reset are unsuccessful. Shortly after; smoke with an electrical smell begins filling the flight deck and the Captain orders an evacuation.