EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft
While climbing out of 18;000 feet the captain and I smelled and saw smoke. We donned our oxygen masks; established communication; and called for the QRC. I was flying the aircraft while the captain performed the necessary checklists for what we determined (because of smell) was electrical smoke. We leveled off at 20;000 feet; stated our intentions to ATC; declared an emergency; and headed back to the airport. The checklist called for manually deploying the RAT and shutting down the IDG's. After deploying the RAT we determined that there was no more smoke in the cockpit and confirmed with the flight attendants that there was no more smoke in the cabin. We were still on our way back to the airport. We decided that the risks of shutting off the IDG's and other TRU's far outweighed discontinuing the checklist. While on final approach inside the marker we smelled the smoke again. We donned our oxygen masks again. We then had a flap/slat disagree message between position 5 and 3. We decided that with the threat of smoke; we were landing the plane regardless. We landed and the smoke smell was gone again so we took the first high speed and had emergency personnel check on the state of the aircraft. While exiting on the high speed we had a PACK1 fail message. Emergency personnel gave us the 'thumbs up' and we taxied to the gate.
ERJ-170 First Officer reported the flight crew noticed smoke in the aircraft while climbing out of 18000 feet. They declared an emergency and returned to departure airport; where the arrival was complicated by a flap disagree message.