Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Troubleshooting; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Maintenance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Departure Airport
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
We got Bleed 2 Over-Temp red EICAS messaged. We ran the QRH and after the issue did not resolve; we decided to return to ZZZ. After spending 30 minutes on the ground getting the filter to Bleed 2 cleaned as that's what they thought the issue was; we departed again for ZZZ1. Our configuration on takeoff was Bleed 1; APU bleed; cross-bleed open; Pack 2. Climbing through 9;000 ft.; the same issue of Bleed 2 Over-Temp occurred. We ran the QRH and after opening the APU bleed; we got the Bleed 2 temp to drop into the white margin. We tried multiple configurations on the pneumatic panel before we came up with that solution. We noticed the airplane was not pressurizing; and we got the 'Cabin Altitude High' alert at FL190. We told the controller we needed lower [and] he responded; 'Give me a minute.' As I started to feel lightheaded and dizzy; I knew I didn't have a minute; so I [requested priority handling] and used the Pilot in Command authority to get a lower altitude and we returned to ZZZ for the second time. They manually closed the Bleed 2 Valve; and we opted to stay at 11;000 ft. and go down to ZZZ2 and over to ZZZ1. The rest of the flight had no further issues; and we landed in ZZZ1 around XA:30.[The cause was] bleed system issues and PACKS being inoperative. A lot of this situation required trial and error and reconfiguring the pneumatics panel so there are not many preventive measures we could have taken.
EMB-135 Captain reported the aircraft having bleed air problems and failing to pressurize properly; with the pilot potentially being affected by oxygen deprivation as the aircraft climbed to higher altitudes.