Date: 201204
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: JFK.Airport, NY
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Night
Aircraft: Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Initial Climb
Airspace: Class B JFK
ATC / advisory: TRACON N90
Aircraft component: Gear Extend/Retract Mechanism
Component problem: Improperly Operated
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Human-Machine Interface; Troubleshooting; Confusion
Second reporter function: First Officer; Pilot Flying
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Contributing factors: Human Factors; Aircraft
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: We departed 13R at JFK and I failed to retract the gear at the appropriate time. We had gotten this aircraft because the #2 start valve would not automatically open for start and we were flying a revenue flight to a maintenance base so it could be fixed. The mechanic (who assisted on the start) said that he didn't have to open any panels to manually open and close the valve for our start; but we were hearing wind noise and feeling some vibration and I thought that maybe he had gotten something loose that opened in flight. I even thought about the current gear door issues; as we had one door on and one off. I never thought about the gear because; of course; it should be up. I looked at all Synoptics pages and saw no problems. We discussed the situation and decided to go back to JFK.When we started to run the checklist and I read GEAR; I looked at the gear handle and saw that it was DOWN. That explained the noise and vibration. We put the gear UP and that solved the problem. We do not believe that we exceeded any gear speeds; but we weren't 100% sure; so I wrote it up and talked to the mechanic when we arrived. I had initially briefed the passengers and flight attendants of our intent to return because of the increased noise and vibration; so I rebriefed them that we had solved the problem and that the aircraft was safe to continue to our destination. The rest of the flight went fine and we completed it safely with no further problems.


Second narrative: As the airplane accelerated we retracted the flaps and after the 'flaps up; climb thrust; climb checklist' call we both notice the aircraft was louder than usual with more vibration than usual. The unusual conditions distracted the Captain from verifying the climb checklist as he was focused on the problem. We talked quickly about the problem and I said it sounded like the nose gear did not come up. I looked at the gear indicators and they were all in agreement (3 green and DN). I believe due to expectational bias that because I did not see a disagreement things were as they should be and it did not register that the gear was still down-DUH. ...possibly being a little tired from being on duty for 10 hours kept us from seeing the obvious.


Synopsis: Apparently distracted from either calling for or acting on the 'gear up' call; the flight crew of a CRJ-90 nearly returned to their departure aiport due to an unusually air noise in the cockpit. Only upon initiating approach checklists did they finally note the gear was still extended. Fatigue due to a long duty period was cited as a possible conributing factor.