Narrative:

I noticed an odd smell. I asked the captain if he smelled anything and he did; and then he noticed heavy smoke coming from my air vent. He pointed it out and I noticed it as well; and we donned our oxygen masks. We then received an APU oil press. The captain shut the APU down and as a result of having generator 2 deferred; we went single generator. This caused my pfd and mfd to turn off; caused several caution messages (AC serv bus is all I remember); and disconnected the autopilot. The autopilot was leveling the aircraft at 8;000 feet as this occurred. By the time I had my oxygen mask on; communications established; and my pfd was back on; we were at approximately 7;700 feet and descending. I took control of the aircraft and leveled it; took the radios; and called for the procedure for smoke. I [notified] approach who gave us 8;000 feet again and cleared us direct to [destination] airport. They did offer us [another airport] which was much closer to our position; but we agreed that [destination] was a better option. We were initially confused as to the location of the smoke procedure and so we transferred controls and I found it on the emergency action card. I completed the procedure and there was still thick smoke present in the flight deck. We determined that all other cautions present (smoke toilet; right window and wshld heat; etc.) were associated with the fire or single generator condition. I confirmed with ATC that fire trucks would be standing by; and we decided to land and stop on the runway for an inspection. We briefed the flight attendant who informed us that there were no issues in the back and that the smoke wasn't too bad; no one was having trouble breathing. We did exceed 250 knots for a few minutes under 10;000 feet after we agreed that we needed to expedite our landing as we were still over 10 minutes [out]. Upon landing; arff (airport rescue and fire fighting) inspected the aircraft and found no evidence of fire or smoke external to the aircraft. We checked with the flight attendant and all agreed that we could taxi to the gate; which we did after requesting ATC to expedite our taxi. Arff followed us to the gate and we had no further issues. I felt that the captain and I worked very well together to identify and quickly solve the issue; and utilized both internal and external resources very well as we worked with ATC to form a plan and notified dispatch of our condition.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 flight crew reported smoke in the cockpit during descent due to malfunctioning APU; in use because of an MEL'd main generator.

Narrative: I noticed an odd smell. I asked the Captain if he smelled anything and he did; and then he noticed heavy smoke coming from my air vent. He pointed it out and I noticed it as well; and we donned our oxygen masks. We then received an APU OIL PRESS. The Captain shut the APU down and as a result of having Generator 2 deferred; we went single generator. This caused my PFD and MFD to turn off; caused several caution messages (AC SERV BUS is all I remember); and disconnected the autopilot. The autopilot was leveling the aircraft at 8;000 feet as this occurred. By the time I had my oxygen mask on; communications established; and my PFD was back on; we were at approximately 7;700 feet and descending. I took control of the aircraft and leveled it; took the radios; and called for the procedure for smoke. I [notified] Approach who gave us 8;000 feet again and cleared us direct to [destination] airport. They did offer us [another airport] which was much closer to our position; but we agreed that [destination] was a better option. We were initially confused as to the location of the smoke procedure and so we transferred controls and I found it on the emergency action card. I completed the procedure and there was still thick smoke present in the flight deck. We determined that all other cautions present (SMOKE TOILET; R WINDOW and WSHLD HEAT; etc.) were associated with the fire or single generator condition. I confirmed with ATC that fire trucks would be standing by; and we decided to land and stop on the runway for an inspection. We briefed the Flight Attendant who informed us that there were no issues in the back and that the smoke wasn't too bad; no one was having trouble breathing. We did exceed 250 knots for a few minutes under 10;000 feet after we agreed that we needed to expedite our landing as we were still over 10 minutes [out]. Upon landing; ARFF (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting) inspected the aircraft and found no evidence of fire or smoke external to the aircraft. We checked with the Flight Attendant and all agreed that we could taxi to the gate; which we did after requesting ATC to expedite our taxi. ARFF followed us to the gate and we had no further issues. I felt that the Captain and I worked very well together to identify and quickly solve the issue; and utilized both internal and external resources very well as we worked with ATC to form a plan and notified dispatch of our condition.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.