Narrative:

Climbing through I think about 11;000 or 12;000 feet we were alerted to an 'aft cargo overheat'. I took the controls and radios and instructed first officer to reference the QRH. After searching the QRH index section under the alphabetical a's he could find nothing that referenced the aft cargo overheat. I then transferred the controls and searched the index myself [and] I found nothing under the as. I regained the controls and radios. First officer continued his search of the QRH.about this time I alerted ATC of our situation and requested a return to the field. First officer searched the fire tab and found items that referenced cargo squibs. This section advised us to arm the fire bottle which we did. Without further information I assumed that an overheat situation was occurring and that the situation had the potential to quickly worsen. I felt that time was of the essence and did not want to fly further from the airport. First officer continued his search of the QRH page by page and found the item under the air tab. He ran through the items and the 'aft cargo overheat' light was extinguished. We landed and taxied to the gate without further event.I feel as though the index section of the QRH should reflect what is actually indicated on the EICAS verbatim. That alone would have eliminated my confusion. After being alerted to 'aft cargo overheat' the last thing that I was thinking was to check the 'air' tab in the QRH. Also I was made aware that others in maintenance and other departments have seen this situation arise in the past. This is the type of information that ought to be disseminated to the pilot group as a whole in order to avoid a reoccurrence.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-900 flight crew reported receiving an 'AFT CARGO OVERHEAT' caution message and had difficulty finding the procedure in the QRH.

Narrative: Climbing through I think about 11;000 or 12;000 feet we were alerted to an 'AFT CARGO OVERHEAT'. I took the controls and radios and instructed FO to reference the QRH. After searching the QRH index section under the Alphabetical A's he could find nothing that referenced the Aft Cargo Overheat. I then transferred the controls and searched the index myself [and] I found nothing under the As. I regained the controls and radios. FO continued his search of the QRH.About this time I alerted ATC of our situation and requested a return to the field. FO searched the fire tab and found items that referenced cargo squibs. This section advised us to arm the fire bottle which we did. Without further information I assumed that an overheat situation was occurring and that the situation had the potential to quickly worsen. I felt that time was of the essence and did not want to fly further from the airport. FO continued his search of the QRH page by page and found the item under the air tab. He ran through the items and the 'AFT CARGO OVERHEAT' light was extinguished. We landed and taxied to the gate without further event.I feel as though the index section of the QRH should reflect what is actually indicated on the EICAS verbatim. That alone would have eliminated my confusion. After being alerted to 'AFT CARGO OVERHEAT' the last thing that I was thinking was to check the 'AIR' tab in the QRH. Also I was made aware that others in maintenance and other departments have seen this situation arise in the past. This is the type of information that ought to be disseminated to the pilot group as a whole in order to avoid a reoccurrence.

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.