Narrative:

While holding at 16;000 my ears began to pop severely. As this was happening; ATC issued us a clearance to descend to 13;000 in the hold and we received a cabin altitude caution message immediately followed by a cabin altitude master warning (I recall our cabin alt rate climbing faster than 4;500 FPM). We performed the immediate action items and QRH. The first officer asked ATC for a descent to 10;000 (per iac) but ATC said we could only have 11;000 due to traffic. The first officer then declared an emergency and again requested 10;000. We were cleared to 11;000. ATC then offered to 'move us up' one aircraft in the hold. Since ATC was not co-operating; we decided to divert to a nearby airport and descended to 10;000 (I am not sure if we were ever cleared to that altitude -- I cannot remember because my ears were popping so much at this point). We had another airport as an alternate on our release but that would mean we needed to stay with this specific controller and fly past our destination and our filed alternate was further away than our divert airport which allowed for us to descend immediately to an altitude lower than just 10;000 -- per iac and QRH. Once immediate action; QRH; and other checklists were completed I informed the flight attendant and passengers of our situation and our intent to have a normal landing at a divert airport. Landing was uneventful and passengers deplaned.about an hour after we made our landing; my left ear began to hurt (best way to describe pain - it was like someone punched me in the ear). The flight attendant and first officer also said their ears hurt. Entire crew went to emergency room. Turned out we all had ruptured small blood vessels in our ears (none of us had blood coming from the ears; but doctors noticed them just under our skin). Company arranged for a rental car and we drove to our destination as we were safe to drive. During our morning preflight procedures; I did note this specific aircraft had two separate decompression events the day before and was supposed to have been fixed in the maintenance logbook. Before we closed the door for this flight the first officer and I had a brief discussion about the write-ups and I stated that they had been fixed; however; we were going to be extra diligent for just such an issue. Our maintenance/contract maintenance needs to fix the problems instead of just trying to duplicate the issue on the ground and when unsuccessful; just signing the plane off.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ200's pressurization failed so the crew declared an emergency with a request for a descent to 10;000 FT. ATC could not give them 10;000 FT because of traffic so the flight diverted to a nearby airport to get a lower altitude. The crew experienced ear pain and mild eardrum injury.

Narrative: While holding at 16;000 my ears began to pop severely. As this was happening; ATC issued us a clearance to descend to 13;000 in the hold and we received a CABIN ALT CAUTION message immediately followed by a CABIN ALTITUDE MASTER WARNING (I recall our cabin alt rate climbing faster than 4;500 FPM). We performed the immediate action items and QRH. The First Officer asked ATC for a descent to 10;000 (per IAC) but ATC said we could only have 11;000 due to traffic. The First Officer then declared an emergency and again requested 10;000. We were cleared to 11;000. ATC then offered to 'move us up' one aircraft in the hold. Since ATC was not co-operating; we decided to divert to a nearby airport and descended to 10;000 (I am not sure if we were ever cleared to that altitude -- I cannot remember because my ears were popping so much at this point). We had another airport as an alternate on our release but that would mean we needed to stay with this specific Controller and fly past our destination and our filed alternate was further away than our divert airport which allowed for us to descend immediately to an altitude lower than just 10;000 -- per IAC and QRH. Once immediate action; QRH; and other checklists were completed I informed the Flight Attendant and passengers of our situation and our intent to have a normal landing at a divert airport. Landing was uneventful and passengers deplaned.About an hour after we made our landing; my left ear began to hurt (best way to describe pain - it was like someone punched me in the ear). The Flight Attendant and First Officer also said their ears hurt. Entire crew went to emergency room. Turned out we all had ruptured small blood vessels in our ears (none of us had blood coming from the ears; but doctors noticed them just under our skin). Company arranged for a rental car and we drove to our destination as we were safe to drive. During our morning preflight procedures; I did note this specific aircraft had two separate decompression events the day before and was supposed to have been fixed in the maintenance logbook. Before we closed the door for this flight the First Officer and I had a brief discussion about the write-ups and I stated that they had been fixed; however; we were going to be extra diligent for just such an issue. Our Maintenance/Contract Maintenance needs to fix the problems instead of just trying to duplicate the issue on the ground and when unsuccessful; just signing the plane off.

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.