Narrative:

Right pack auto mode on placard due to inbound crew unable to control temperature. Right pack was being operated in stby mode north. Right recirc fan on placard. Captain was pilot flying and I was pilot not flying. At 600 ft AGL temperature on flight deck went full hot and airflow increased to a level I have not ever experienced in my 6;000 hours on this airplane. Noise from pack flow made it impossible to communicate verbally with the captain. Captain continued to fly the airplane despite all the distraction. Using hand signals and some common sense we cleaned the airplane up and leveled at 5;000 ft. All indications in cockpit were normal but it was obvious we had a problem. Cockpit temperature was now 99 degrees. Flight attendant had tried to call cockpit numerous times but we never heard the chime. At one point I saw the call light on and I picked up the phone and they were talking over each other trying to describe a problem in the back of the airplane; but do to the noise and lack of detail I was unable to understand them. Captain instructed me to turn the pack off. I selected the left pack to turn off as I was trying to immediately reduce airflow to the cockpit to restore our ability to communicate. Airflow reduced to a level that we now could communicate; cockpit then went full cold and temperature was now 60. Captain decided to make an immediate return (good call) as we know there is problem in the back of the airplane but to what extent we are unsure. Emergency declared and uneventful overweight landing made on the runway. Upon gate arrival we found the side wall panels on both sides of the aircraft at row 12; 13; and 14 had ballooned inward some 12 to 18 inches and were cracked and damaged. A deadheading pilot in the cabin described the sidewalls as if they had been inflated. He indicated that at our first level off (5;000 ft) they compressed back against the fuselage into place. During our return we had one intermediate level off and at that point the side walls expanded and contracted again. He described the scene in the back as chaos (screaming and crying passengers) but indicated the flight attendant's did a great job attempting to keep everyone calm.observations: 1 - captain did a great job continuing to fly the airplane and not be distracted. 2 - no checklist procedure in the QRH for something like this; we were on our own. 3 - temperature problem was written up on the inbound. I believe maintenance mis-identified the problem and placarded the wrong item. At this station maintenance is generally too quick to placard and go and not diagnosing the problems they are presented with. 4 - in follow up discussions with the flight attendant's we learned that due to the fact that we were not answering the calls from them they were contemplating entering the door code and attempting to make entry into the cockpit to see if; 'we were ok'. We never heard the calls and even if we had I am not sure they would have received much information from us at that moment. I think someone needs to explain to the masses that maybe we are not answering because we are actually busy working a compounding problem. Attempting to enter the cockpit unannounced during an emergency is a bad; bad idea. Upon entering the door code we would have selected the 'deny' position on the cockpit door control to limit access but the additional distraction created could have been overwhelming to say the least.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 flight crew experiences very high noise levels and temperatures from the air conditioning system shortly after takeoff. Calls from the cabin go unnoticed and communication is impossible until a pack is turned off. Flight Attendants then report that the cabin walls around row 13 are inflating and the crew returns to the departure airport for an over weight landing.

Narrative: Right pack auto mode on placard due to inbound crew unable to control temperature. Right pack was being operated in STBY MODE N. Right RECIRC FAN on placard. Captain was pilot flying and I was pilot not flying. At 600 FT AGL temperature on flight deck went full hot and airflow increased to a level I have not ever experienced in my 6;000 hours on this airplane. Noise from pack flow made it impossible to communicate verbally with the Captain. Captain continued to fly the airplane despite all the distraction. Using hand signals and some common sense we cleaned the airplane up and leveled at 5;000 FT. All indications in cockpit were normal but it was obvious we had a problem. Cockpit temperature was now 99 degrees. Flight Attendant had tried to call cockpit numerous times but we never heard the chime. At one point I saw the call light on and I picked up the phone and they were talking over each other trying to describe a problem in the back of the airplane; but do to the noise and lack of detail I was unable to understand them. Captain instructed me to turn the pack off. I selected the left pack to turn off as I was trying to immediately reduce airflow to the cockpit to restore our ability to communicate. Airflow reduced to a level that we now could communicate; cockpit then went full cold and temperature was now 60. Captain decided to make an immediate return (good call) as we know there is problem in the back of the airplane but to what extent we are unsure. Emergency declared and uneventful overweight landing made on the runway. Upon gate arrival we found the side wall panels on both sides of the aircraft at row 12; 13; and 14 had ballooned inward some 12 to 18 inches and were cracked and damaged. A deadheading pilot in the cabin described the sidewalls as if they had been inflated. He indicated that at our first level off (5;000 FT) they compressed back against the fuselage into place. During our return we had one intermediate level off and at that point the side walls expanded and contracted again. He described the scene in the back as chaos (screaming and crying passengers) but indicated the Flight Attendant's did a great job attempting to keep everyone calm.Observations: 1 - Captain did a great job continuing to fly the airplane and not be distracted. 2 - No checklist procedure in the QRH for something like this; we were on our own. 3 - Temperature problem was written up on the inbound. I believe Maintenance mis-identified the problem and placarded the wrong item. At this Station Maintenance is generally too quick to placard and go and not diagnosing the problems they are presented with. 4 - In follow up discussions with the Flight Attendant's we learned that due to the fact that we were not answering the calls from them they were contemplating entering the door code and attempting to make entry into the cockpit to see if; 'we were ok'. We never heard the calls and even if we had I am not sure they would have received much information from us at that moment. I think someone needs to explain to the masses that maybe we are not answering because we are actually busy working a compounding problem. Attempting to enter the cockpit unannounced during an emergency is a bad; bad idea. Upon entering the door code we would have selected the 'deny' position on the cockpit door control to limit access but the additional distraction created could have been overwhelming to say the least.

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.