Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport; General Declared Emergency; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
While on the climb out I noticed that my ears began to pop and the feeling of pressure was different than normal. As a result I looked down at the pressurization panel and noticed that the cabin was climbing at about 1;800 FPM; almost the same rate as the aircraft. When we leveled at 8;000 FT; the cabin altitude was 5;600 FT. At that time the Captain and I discussed the situation. He then transferred the controls and the radios to me as he contacted Maintenance Control to discuss the situation. I informed ATC we had an issue and needed to stay at 8;000 FT. ATC then began to vector us to keep us out of the departure/arrival paths. The Captain then returned to the radios and informed me that Maintenance said we should try to continue the climb. I notified ATC and we were cleared to 14;000 FT. As we passed through 11;000 FT we got the amber CABIN ALT message. The Captain then said that we needed to descend back to 8;000 FT. We notified ATC of such and were immediately cleared to 8;000 FT.Passing through 10;300 FT; we got the red CABIN ALT warning. We ran the immediate action items and donned our oxygen masks. By the time the immediate action items were run we had returned to 8;000 FT; we were then cleared to 7;000 FT. As we began to run the rest of the QRH we reviewed and discussed both the RED warning message and the AMBER message QRH. We elected due to the low altitude to not drop the masks as required by the RED warning QRH; but not required per the AMBER message. I then removed my oxygen mask and took the controls while the Captain removed his; then returned the controls and radios to him while I notified the Flight Attendant. Once the emergency was resolved and the crew was all in the loop the aircraft was prepared for landing. Landing occurred under max landing weight. Fire equipment had been dispatched even though we stated it was not required. After landing the trucks followed us to the North Hold Line.The event occurred due to the cargo door not being properly shut after all bags were loaded. Maintenance personnel pressurized the aircraft and found no pressurization leaks. They then inspected the baggage door and found that the door had not properly sealed.This issue could have possibly been prevented in three ways. First; a full walk around by ground personnel to check that all aircraft doors had been shut might have prevented it. The second would have been if Maintenance Control had not asked us to try and climb higher. With passengers on board 'testing' to see if the cabin will climb more is not a best practice and should not be suggested by Maintenance Control. Third; as a crew we should have declined the suggestion/direction of Maintenance Control to climb and just returned to the airport.
An emergency descent was not required; as we had reached 8;000 FT by this point. In addition; the cabin ALT message had extinguished due to our lower altitude.I informed the passengers that were returning due to an issue with pressurization; and that the aircraft was sound and there was no reason for alarm. We landed without incident and returned to the gate unassisted.According to Maintainance; this issue has been occurring regularly. A thourough analysis of why the cargo door is not seating properly should be performed.
A CRJ flight crew declared an emergency and returned to their departure airport when they were unable to pressurize the cabin.  Maintenance discovered a cargo door was not sealing properly when closed.