Narrative:

First flight of the day for us; early morning departure; [we] got to the airplane; preflight; taxi; takeoff; everything as normal. During the climb out; passing through 12;000 ft; we got a cabin pressure warning light. Immediately went to the appropriate emergency checklist. Also; simultaneously coordinated with ATC to maintain 12;000 ft and then very soon after a decent to 10;000 ft. As we were going through the emergency checklist we were also getting closer to an en route maintenance station and got a decent to 8;000 ft. Our flight was scheduled to go to a more distant airport; but due to this pressurization issue; we knew we would have to make our way to our filed destination at 8;000 instead of the planned altitude. We talked to dispatch to help verify that we would have enough fuel for an 8;000 ft flight to our filed destination. We had also considered landing at the nearby airport; however; we had plenty of fuel to continue the flight to our filed destination. We continued to our filed destination and made a normal landing.after ending the flight I left the airplane to go to preflight another airplane for our next flight. My captain stayed at the airplane to make a maintenance entry and talk to maintenance people. When he met up with me again; he did mention that there was a circuit breaker or breakers that were popped. I had not seen it for myself; but thought that was plausible since we did have an anomaly. After; I did not think about this event again. The next day; I was notified by company that there could have been popped circuit breakers prior to the flight. During my preflight I did not notice any popped circuit breakers. In fact; during the flight while dealing with the issue; the captain and I both checked our respective circuit breaker panels and did not notice anything out of order; although it is possible that we could have missed seeing a popped circuit breaker. I do not know if there was a popped breaker or if a breaker had popped in flight. In fact; I never saw a popped circuit breaker for myself. I knew about it from the mention of it from my captain after the fact and then in the notification from company. The aircraft had a pressurization malfunction. After the fact; I was notified that it could have been the circumstance that it could have been a popped breaker or breakers prior to our flight departing. If that was the case; then it would be human error with complacency since I had not noticed any popped circuit breakers prior to the flight. I do not know if any breakers were popped prior to the flight or if they had popped during the flight.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A Q400 crew was notified their flight's pressurization malfunction and CABIN PRESSURE Warning may have resulted because circuit breakers were popped prior to or during preflight and went undetected.

Narrative: First flight of the day for us; early morning departure; [we] got to the airplane; preflight; taxi; takeoff; everything as normal. During the climb out; passing through 12;000 FT; we got a CABIN PRESSURE warning light. Immediately went to the appropriate emergency checklist. Also; simultaneously coordinated with ATC to maintain 12;000 FT and then very soon after a decent to 10;000 FT. As we were going through the emergency checklist we were also getting closer to an en route maintenance station and got a decent to 8;000 FT. Our flight was scheduled to go to a more distant airport; but due to this pressurization issue; we knew we would have to make our way to our filed destination at 8;000 instead of the planned altitude. We talked to Dispatch to help verify that we would have enough fuel for an 8;000 FT flight to our filed destination. We had also considered landing at the nearby airport; however; we had plenty of fuel to continue the flight to our filed destination. We continued to our filed destination and made a normal landing.After ending the flight I left the airplane to go to preflight another airplane for our next flight. My Captain stayed at the airplane to make a maintenance entry and talk to Maintenance people. When he met up with me again; he did mention that there was a circuit breaker or breakers that were popped. I had not seen it for myself; but thought that was plausible since we did have an anomaly. After; I did not think about this event again. The next day; I was notified by company that there could have been popped circuit breakers prior to the flight. During my preflight I did not notice any popped circuit breakers. In fact; during the flight while dealing with the issue; the Captain and I both checked our respective circuit breaker panels and did not notice anything out of order; although it is possible that we could have missed seeing a popped circuit breaker. I do not know if there was a popped breaker or if a breaker had popped in flight. In fact; I never saw a popped circuit breaker for myself. I knew about it from the mention of it from my Captain after the fact and then in the notification from company. The aircraft had a pressurization malfunction. After the fact; I was notified that it could have been the circumstance that it could have been a popped breaker or breakers prior to our flight departing. If that was the case; then it would be human error with complacency since I had not noticed any popped circuit breakers prior to the flight. I do not know if any breakers were popped prior to the flight or if they had popped during the flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.