Narrative:

At FL350; at dusk in VMC conditions (we had been VMC the whole flight); we received a 'pressurization flow' light. I initiated an emergency descent; declared an emergency with ATC and asked for the QRH. My initial thought was to try to 'save the cabin' namely; to keep it below 10;000 ft. It fairly quickly became apparent that we were not going to be able to do that and we initiated the 'cabin alt/warning/rapid depressurization' QRH checklist. First officer had his mask on at that time and began that checklist. He took care of the 'cabin alt' red box items and the checklist while I put my mask on and continued with the descent while talking to ATC. In the descent; somewhere in the upper 20's; we did get the 'cabin alt' warning light. At some point in the descent we were advised by the flight attendants that the masks had dropped. We leveled at 10;000 ft at which time I asked our number 1 flight attendant if any passengers seemed to be hurt. She said that one first class passenger stated that he had a cold and was having some trouble initially but that he seemed to be fine by the time we leveled off. The passengers seemed fine; the aircraft was performing well with no secondary issues; we had plenty of fuel and after discussion with first officer I elected to continue to [destination]. We asked to be met by paramedics even though there were no injuries to my knowledge but it seemed best to have them there to look at our first class passenger and anyone else who might need attention. What could we have done better? One thing that I wish that I had done differently was that I initially was the pilot talking to ATC and flying. Somewhere in there; however; I relinquished the radios to first officer so that he ended up talking to ATC and running the QRH. He did a very good job but was carrying more than his share of the load.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD-82 flight crew reported loss of pressurization at FL350. Declared emergency; executed descent; and continued to destination.

Narrative: At FL350; at dusk in VMC conditions (we had been VMC the whole flight); we received a 'Pressurization Flow' light. I initiated an emergency descent; declared an emergency with ATC and asked for the QRH. My initial thought was to try to 'save the cabin' namely; to keep it below 10;000 FT. It fairly quickly became apparent that we were not going to be able to do that and we initiated the 'Cabin Alt/Warning/Rapid Depressurization' QRH checklist. First Officer had his mask on at that time and began that checklist. He took care of the 'Cabin Alt' Red Box items and the Checklist while I put my mask on and continued with the descent while talking to ATC. In the descent; somewhere in the upper 20's; we did get the 'Cabin Alt' Warning light. At some point in the descent we were advised by the flight attendants that the masks had dropped. We leveled at 10;000 FT at which time I asked our Number 1 Flight Attendant if any passengers seemed to be hurt. She said that one First Class Passenger stated that he had a cold and was having some trouble initially but that he seemed to be fine by the time we leveled off. The passengers seemed fine; the aircraft was performing well with no secondary issues; we had plenty of fuel and after discussion with First Officer I elected to continue to [destination]. We asked to be met by paramedics even though there were no injuries to my knowledge but it seemed best to have them there to look at our First Class Passenger and anyone else who might need attention. What could we have done better? One thing that I wish that I had done differently was that I initially was the pilot talking to ATC and flying. Somewhere in there; however; I relinquished the radios to First Officer so that he ended up talking to ATC and running the QRH. He did a very good job but was carrying more than his share of the load.

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.