Crew experienced engine abnormalities; incurred a slight altitude deviation and returned to land.

Attributes
ACN	1078499
Time
Date	201304
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Turbine Engine
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Person 2
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Narrative:

After departure and during climb we were leveled off a couple of times; then cleared to FL180. Once at FL180; we heard two loud banging noises coming from engine number one. The throttle levers were greater than 15% which disconnected the auto-pilot. The EICAS message read eng 1 control fault. I immediately started working through the QRH with the captain and; in doing so; climbed 300 feet above our assigned altitude. ATC notified us we were 300 feet high. The captain advised we were correcting; and once level back at fl 180 the captain declared an emergency as per the QRH. We were off our assigned altitude no more that two minutes. I do not think there is a way this situation could have been prevented. The altitude deviation was a direct result of dealing with an in-flight situation just before an emergency was declared.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Crew experienced engine abnormalities; incurred a slight altitude deviation and returned to land.

Narrative: After departure and during climb we were leveled off a couple of times; then cleared to FL180. Once at FL180; we heard two loud banging noises coming from engine number one. The throttle levers were greater than 15% which disconnected the auto-pilot. The EICAS message read Eng 1 Control Fault. I immediately started working through the QRH with the Captain and; in doing so; climbed 300 feet above our assigned altitude. ATC notified us we were 300 feet high. The Captain advised we were correcting; and once level back at FL 180 the Captain declared an emergency as per the QRH. We were off our assigned altitude no more that two minutes. I do not think there is a way this situation could have been prevented. The altitude deviation was a direct result of dealing with an in-flight situation just before an emergency was declared.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.