Narrative:

Due to excessive heat in the cabin as the result of an inoperative right air conditioning pack; a passenger became ill and it was necessary to contact company medical. The decision was made to return to the gate and deplane the passenger. By the time we returned to the gate; the heat in the cabin was overbearing and I made the decision to deplane all of the passengers due to concerns I had over potential safety and illness the heat could/was causing. Since the left air conditioning pack was unable to keep up with the cooling demands on the ground I made the decision to contact dispatch in order to try and work through the issue at hand. My dispatcher was very professional and great to work with but due to the issue at hand she needed to transfer me to the dispatch supervisor. Unfortunately; the supervisor was borderline hostile; belligerent; and very difficult to work with. He was particularly irritated that I had ordered the passengers to deplane into the comfort of the terminal building until we could resolve the excessive heat buildup in the passenger cabin. He made it abundantly clear that he wanted 'that plane at the destination' and it didn't seem to matter to him that we had a problem on our hands; even though we had one passenger who was in the process of being transported to a local hospital and others who would soon be on their way if the passengers weren't deplaned into the terminal. He also commented; 'why did you even bother to call me if you've already deplaned the passengers' and he continued by commenting on how long it would take us to depart after deplaning the passengers. Ultimately I had to speak with the flight operations duty manager in order to try and get a proper resolution of the issue at hand. When an employee is attempting to work though an issue at hand using all available resources at their disposal (as we are trained to do) other employees in the process should never be hostile; belligerent; or disrespectful. I understand there was tremendous stress on a lot of people to get the plane out of las and on its way; but this entire issue was created by the company's decision (the dispatch supervisor's; I assume) to operate into las using an airplane that had an inoperative right air conditioning pack knowing that the las weather was over 100 degrees. All too often when things do not work as planned I find that I sometimes end up taking unnecessary abuse from certain individuals over problems that arise that are literally out of my control. This kind of treatment of pilots has got to stop immediately as it does nothing but contribute to a hostile working environment.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dispatched with an inoperative air conditioning pack in ambient temperatures in excess of 100 deg F; a B737-700 returned to the gate at LAS due to a passenger incapacitation apparently caused by excessive cabin temperatures.

Narrative: Due to excessive heat in the cabin as the result of an inoperative right air conditioning pack; a passenger became ill and it was necessary to contact company medical. The decision was made to return to the gate and deplane the passenger. By the time we returned to the gate; the heat in the cabin was overbearing and I made the decision to deplane all of the passengers due to concerns I had over potential safety and illness the heat could/was causing. Since the left air conditioning pack was unable to keep up with the cooling demands on the ground I made the decision to contact Dispatch in order to try and work through the issue at hand. My Dispatcher was very professional and great to work with but due to the issue at hand she needed to transfer me to the Dispatch Supervisor. Unfortunately; the Supervisor was borderline hostile; belligerent; and very difficult to work with. He was particularly irritated that I had ordered the passengers to deplane into the comfort of the terminal building until we could resolve the excessive heat buildup in the passenger cabin. He made it abundantly clear that he wanted 'that plane at the destination' and it didn't seem to matter to him that we had a problem on our hands; even though we had one passenger who was in the process of being transported to a local hospital and others who would soon be on their way if the passengers weren't deplaned into the terminal. He also commented; 'Why did you even bother to call me if you've already deplaned the passengers' and he continued by commenting on how long it would take us to depart after deplaning the passengers. Ultimately I had to speak with the Flight Operations Duty Manager in order to try and get a proper resolution of the issue at hand. When an employee is attempting to work though an issue at hand using all available resources at their disposal (as we are trained to do) other employees in the process should never be hostile; belligerent; or disrespectful. I understand there was tremendous stress on a lot of people to get the plane out of LAS and on its way; but this entire issue was created by the company's decision (the Dispatch Supervisor's; I assume) to operate into LAS using an airplane that had an inoperative right air conditioning pack knowing that the LAS weather was over 100 degrees. All too often when things do not work as planned I find that I sometimes end up taking unnecessary abuse from certain individuals over problems that arise that are literally out of my control. This kind of treatment of pilots has got to stop immediately as it does nothing but contribute to a hostile working environment.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.