EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 210; Flight Crew Total 3200; Flight Crew Type 1311
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor
Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Aircraft
During climbout at about FL230; PACK (Pressurization Air Conditioning Kit) 1 OVLD EICAS Caution illuminated. I immediately told ATC that we needed to level off at FL250 per our limitation on single PACK operations. I was Pilot Monitoring so I ran the QRH for PACK 1 OVLD. The procedure eventually has you turn the PACK back on. When we did; the message went away initially but then came back after about 5 seconds. The First Officer and I only noticed a faint smell of smoke. About 30 seconds later; myself; the First Officer; our jumpseater; the Flight Attendant and some passengers smelled the smoke. There was no visible smoke. The smell almost immediately went away. I was about to call for O2 masks but I didn't feel the need to after the smell went away. I was very certain that the source of the smell was the failed PACK. I reassured the crew; ATC and the passengers that the threat had been eliminated. I [requested priority handling] and told ATC that we needed to go back to ZZZ. We landed Runway XXL; just under max landing weight and we had CFR (Crash Fire Rescue) look at the aircraft after we cleared the high speed taxiway. The fire chief said there was no visible smoke so we went to [gate] and deplaned.Recently there have been issues with odor coming from defective PACKs. I'm sure the company is trying to find the source of the issues but I think it could be related to how many times the PACKs froze and overloaded over the summer. I suggest taking closer looks at the PACKs when planes are in for Maintenance on overnights.
EMB-145 Captain reported smoke and fumes from an air conditioning pack failure resulted in a diversion.