An MD80 flight crew declared an emergency and returned to land overweight at their departure airport...

Narrative:

While on initial climbout after takeoff the 'tail compartment temp hi' light illuminated. I accomplished the memory items and the first officer hacked his clock. I accomplished the QRH checklist. The light extinguished after about 20 seconds; but it illuminated again after another 20 seconds. This second illumination lasted about 40 seconds. We leveled at 10;000 ft; declared an emergency and requested vectors for landing and crash fire rescue equipment response. I took control of the aircraft for the overweight landing and used most of the runway to stop so that I would not compound our emergency with hot brakes. Crash fire rescue equipment scanned the aircraft with heat detecting equipment and reported that no overheat existed. We then taxied to the gate with fire equipment following behind. At the gate the aft stairs were opened and crash fire rescue equipment inspected the internal tail area. Brake temperatures peaked at 205 degrees. The aircraft was subsequently taken out of service by maintenance for further inspection of a possible air conditioning duct leak.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD80 flight crew declared an emergency and returned to land overweight at their departure airport following receipt of a Tail Compartment Temp High warning.

Narrative: While on initial climbout after takeoff the 'Tail Compartment Temp Hi' light illuminated. I accomplished the memory items and the First Officer hacked his clock. I accomplished the QRH checklist. The light extinguished after about 20 seconds; but it illuminated again after another 20 seconds. This second illumination lasted about 40 seconds. We leveled at 10;000 FT; declared an emergency and requested vectors for landing and CFR response. I took control of the aircraft for the overweight landing and used most of the runway to stop so that I would not compound our emergency with hot brakes. CFR scanned the aircraft with heat detecting equipment and reported that no overheat existed. We then taxied to the gate with fire equipment following behind. At the gate the aft stairs were opened and CFR inspected the internal tail area. Brake temperatures peaked at 205 degrees. The aircraft was subsequently taken out of service by Maintenance for further inspection of a possible air conditioning duct leak.

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.

Attributes
ACN	965087
Time
Date	201108
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Pneumatic Ducting
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

An MD80 flight crew declared an emergency and returned to land overweight at their departure airport following receipt of a tail compartment temp high warning.