Narrative:

Climbing through about FL180 I noticed pack 2 vlv cld message and told the captain I was going to reset it. I did with no problem. When we got to around FL260 I noticed the cabin altitude was around 9;300 ft and rising. It's usually around 7;600-7;700 ft. There were no annunciations at the time. We both agreed that we need to go back down at least to FL250. Captain started to get mask on and talk to ATC and I was working on getting us going down. Once I got us going down I put my mask on as the cabin altitude was passing slowly through 10;000 ft. Captain asked ATC for 250; then right after 10;000. They held us at FL240 for about 30 seconds for traffic below us and then we started down. In the mean-time captain called flight attendant and told we were about to do an emergency descent to 10;000 ft. We got clearance to 11;000 and brought thrust levers to idle; speed brakes out and started down around 290 KTS. Captain said to slow down so he could get the gear out. We ran the immediate action items at that point and he started on the QRH.ATC cleared us down to 10 and we leveled off there. Due to the workload and distractions we slowed down to 200 KTS at 10 and because of our weight were pitched up around 5-7 degrees. I added power to the detent and brought the speed back up to around 260. We then asked to go down lower to burn more fuel since we started to head back to departure airport once we leveled off. Captain; ran the QRH for pack and bleed problems at this point and isolated E2 bleeds and pack 2. [We] flew around on vectors until we got below landing weight and landed with no more abnormalities.threats were slow cabin depressurization; inexperienced first officer; and high workload environment. Errors: not following the emergency descent procedure exactly. We should have slowed to 250 KTS before starting down so we could put the gear out. The cabin altitude was not rising rapidly; so there wasn't an overwhelming sense of urgency. I also didn't keep a good scan going when we leveled off at 10;000 ft and got slow. I would consider when we were at 200 KTS as an unwanted aircraft state since I did not intend on getting that slow. Follow the procedures exactly as published.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An EMB-145 developed a pneumatic system leak at FL260 which first alerted as BLEED 2 VLV CLD and PACK 2 VLV CLD as the cabin began climbing. An emergency was declared; the QRH completed and after leveling at 10;000 FT; the crew realized the QRH instruction to open the Crossfeed Valve allowed the left pneumatic system to dump into the malfunctioning right ducting.

Narrative: Climbing through about FL180 I noticed PACK 2 VLV CLD message and told the Captain I was going to reset it. I did with no problem. When we got to around FL260 I noticed the cabin altitude was around 9;300 FT and rising. It's usually around 7;600-7;700 FT. There were no annunciations at the time. We both agreed that we need to go back down at least to FL250. Captain started to get mask on and talk to ATC and I was working on getting us going down. Once I got us going down I put my mask on as the cabin altitude was passing slowly through 10;000 FT. Captain asked ATC for 250; then right after 10;000. They held us at FL240 for about 30 seconds for traffic below us and then we started down. In the mean-time Captain called Flight Attendant and told we were about to do an emergency descent to 10;000 FT. We got clearance to 11;000 and brought thrust levers to idle; speed brakes out and started down around 290 KTS. Captain said to slow down so he could get the gear out. We ran the Immediate Action Items at that point and he started on the QRH.ATC cleared us down to 10 and we leveled off there. Due to the workload and distractions we slowed down to 200 KTS at 10 and because of our weight were pitched up around 5-7 degrees. I added power to the detent and brought the speed back up to around 260. We then asked to go down lower to burn more fuel since we started to head back to departure airport once we leveled off. Captain; ran the QRH for pack and bleed problems at this point and isolated E2 bleeds and PACK 2. [We] flew around on vectors until we got below landing weight and landed with no more abnormalities.Threats were slow cabin depressurization; inexperienced First Officer; and high workload environment. Errors: Not following the emergency descent procedure exactly. We should have slowed to 250 KTS before starting down so we could put the gear out. The cabin altitude was not rising rapidly; so there wasn't an overwhelming sense of urgency. I also didn't keep a good scan going when we leveled off at 10;000 FT and got slow. I would consider when we were at 200 KTS as an unwanted aircraft state since I did not intend on getting that slow. Follow the procedures exactly as published.

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.