Narrative:

During climb out we got a master warning and tail compartment temperature high light. The first officer was the pilot flying and I confirmed that he would continue flying while I ran the procedure. We accomplished the red box items and then I ran the appropriate procedure. The warning light did not go out after two minutes; as specified in the checklist; so we declared an emergency and got vectors back to our departure airport. During the descent; after power was reduced; the high temperature light went out. We then had some pressurization problems including a pressurization flow light. We added sufficient power to keep the aircraft pressurization descending schedule. We advised center and approach that we wanted crash fire rescue equipment to meet the aircraft to confirm there was no fire or high temperature in the tail before taxiing to a gate. I talked to the flight attendants and advised them of the situation and gave them ten minutes to accomplish their primary emergency checklist without brace commands. I made a PA to the passengers explaining that we'd had a warning light; which was now extinguished; but that we still needed to turn back and for them to pay attention to the flight attendant briefing. I also mentioned that we would be met on the ground by airport safety vehicles as a routine precaution. We accomplished the emergency landing checklist; briefed the visual approach and finished the descent and mechanical landing checklists. We accomplished a short visual approach to runway 28 and turned off at the tango taxiway where arrf inspected us and saw no evidence of continued high temperatures in the tail area. They then followed us to the gate. Maintenance found a broken clamp from the pack system coalescer bag which was porting bleed air into the tail compartment.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD80 returned to the departure airport following receipt of a Tail Compartment High Temp warning.

Narrative: During climb out we got a Master Warning and Tail Compartment Temperature High light. The First Officer was the pilot flying and I confirmed that he would continue flying while I ran the procedure. We accomplished the red box items and then I ran the appropriate procedure. The warning light did not go out after two minutes; as specified in the checklist; so we declared an emergency and got vectors back to our departure airport. During the descent; after power was reduced; the high temperature light went out. We then had some pressurization problems including a Pressurization Flow light. We added sufficient power to keep the aircraft pressurization descending schedule. We advised Center and Approach that we wanted CFR to meet the aircraft to confirm there was no fire or high temperature in the tail before taxiing to a gate. I talked to the flight attendants and advised them of the situation and gave them ten minutes to accomplish their primary emergency checklist without brace commands. I made a PA to the passengers explaining that we'd had a warning light; which was now extinguished; but that we still needed to turn back and for them to pay attention to the flight attendant briefing. I also mentioned that we would be met on the ground by airport safety vehicles as a routine precaution. We accomplished the Emergency Landing checklist; briefed the visual approach and finished the Descent and Mechanical Landing checklists. We accomplished a short visual approach to Runway 28 and turned off at the Tango Taxiway where ARRF inspected us and saw no evidence of continued high temperatures in the tail area. They then followed us to the gate. Maintenance found a broken clamp from the pack system coalescer bag which was porting bleed air into the tail compartment.

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.