MD-82
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Landed As Precaution; General Declared Emergency
Aircraft; Airport
I am flying this leg. Location is FL330 heading to the US. 'CABIN ALTITUDE' aural warning and horn go off; followed by 'CABIN ALT' warning light and Master Warning light illumination. A quick look around and we both immediately put on our O2 masks as we see the cabin rising rapidly. I immediately tell my First Officer to declare an emergency and that we are starting an emergency descent. The First Officer initially had a bit of trouble establishing with ATC that we had an emergency and were descending; and then attempting to get the MSA for the area; though we were VFR with good visibility. After completing the QRH procedures for the Rapid Depressurization and then Emergency Descent we attempted to gain control of the cabin by switching to STBY on the pressurization controller but to no avail. In the descent I made a quick call to the #1 Flight Attendant that we had an emergency and were descending. The passenger O2 masks did not deploy. After leveling off at 10;000 feet and taking note of our situation I then called the flight attendants to confirm no structural damage in the cabin of which they reported none. I then informed the passengers of the emergency descent and that the airplane was flying fine. Realizing that we could not make our filed destination with the fuel onboard we decided on a US airport for our divert. We had very sketchy communications in the border area at 10;000 feet and used several other aircraft as relays until we could establish communications with US ATC. Finally having communications with ATC we had them call Dispatch to notify them of our situation and divert. We landed at the divert airport with no further incidents. However at airport it was discovered they had no start carts; no electrical; no usable jetway and no customs; and we had no APU. We had to leave the right engine running for our 2 hour duration on the ground. The First Officer did a walk around to confirm no structural issues. Through discussions with Maintenance and Dispatch we determined that we would fly it back to our destination using the manual pressurization procedure. Dispatch and I planned the flight for fuel purposes at 10;000 feet in case we did have further pressurization issues but we filed at 17;000 feet. On the ground I went through the cabin and talked with the passengers to calm any fears; however one passenger and companion opted to get off the airplane as the female passenger was on the verge of a major panic attack. The resident TSA agent took 'custody' of the passengers until the customs agents could arrive. We proceeded to [destination] with no further incident.
A MD-82 lost pressurization at FL330 while on an international flight; so the crew declared an emergency; began a descent to 10;000 feet; completed the QRH and diverted to an airport on US soil for fuel before proceeding to their destination.