Narrative:

I was operating with [my] first officer (first officer). The aircraft right pack was placarded inoperative. During preflight I called dispatch and asked about the weather I saw along our proposed flight path. I was a bit hesitant with weather I saw and our FL250 restriction. He said he didn't think it would be an issue and I then asked for a new release with an extra 1000lbs of fuel. The flight pushed back was normal until just past obh where we observed a large area of weather ahead of us visually and on radar. I sent our dispatcher a message asking about the weather ahead and it's possible impact on our flight path. I received a message from dispatch that said; 'except for the activity ahead that you see it's pretty much a clear shot after that'. Our radar showed some well-developed cells blocking us and our eyeballs agreed. We asked for a deviation to the south and received that from denver center. Initially we had a heading of approximately 190 degrees. We proceeded south and continually looked for a safe route to the west. In the vicinity of cos we were able to turn ssw. We were in and out of imc conditions with occasional mod chop and mixed icing. We were now heading ssw at FL240 and watching the weather continually build. Around this time we were given direct oal when able and advise. We continued into southern utah just north of lake powell looking to go direct oal but unable to find a safe route through the weather. Approaching salt lake center advised us that we would need to turn north; due to military airspace ahead; and gave us routing of mlf krost oal. I put mlf in the FMC and there was no way to go north with the weather. I told salt lake we couldn't do that and they advised us to expect routing over las which I said would be ok. Salt lake then switched us to la center. La center was very busy and it took a minute or so to check in. La advised us we would have to stay north of bce and cdc and I said we could not do that. We were now given a right turn to mlf which was now behind us and right into the weather. I replied 'unable'. We were now south of bce and still southeast of cdc by a few miles heading approximately 260. A couple minutes later a different controller from la center came on and told us to squawk 7700 and contact nellis control which we did. Soon after contacting nellis control I asked for and received direct krost oal inyou flight plan route. The nellis controller advised us that we had violated restricted airspace and had upset a [military] exercise. By our reckoning we entered a hot moa but not the restricted areas north and west of nellis AFB. In hindsight it probably was not a good idea to send an airplane limited to essentially 240 westbound across the country in weather that was continually building. In the future I will not accept a one pack aircraft across the country with similar weather conditions. A one pack aircraft should be dispatched only in weather that can accommodate the FL250 restriction. If there is any doubt a different aircraft is in order. Looking back this aircraft should not have been dispatched on our route; given the same situation again I will refuse the aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 flight crew reported they inadvertently entered a restricted area during a weather deviation related to their dispatch with one pack inoperative that limited them to FL250 or below.

Narrative: I was operating with [my] First Officer (FO). The aircraft right pack was placarded inoperative. During preflight I called dispatch and asked about the weather I saw along our proposed flight path. I was a bit hesitant with weather I saw and our FL250 restriction. He said he didn't think it would be an issue and I then asked for a new release with an extra 1000lbs of fuel. The flight pushed back was normal until just past OBH where we observed a large area of weather ahead of us visually and on radar. I sent our dispatcher a message asking about the weather ahead and it's possible impact on our flight path. I received a message from dispatch that said; 'except for the activity ahead that you see it's pretty much a clear shot after that'. Our radar showed some well-developed cells blocking us and our eyeballs agreed. We asked for a deviation to the south and received that from Denver center. Initially we had a heading of approximately 190 degrees. We proceeded south and continually looked for a safe route to the west. In the vicinity of cos we were able to turn SSW. We were in and out of imc conditions with occasional mod chop and mixed icing. We were now heading SSW at FL240 and watching the weather continually build. Around this time we were given direct OAL when able and advise. We continued into southern Utah just north of lake Powell looking to go direct OAL but unable to find a safe route through the weather. Approaching Salt Lake Center advised us that we would need to turn north; due to military airspace ahead; and gave us routing of MLF KROST OAL. I put MLF in the FMC and there was no way to go north with the weather. I told Salt Lake we couldn't do that and they advised us to expect routing over las which I said would be ok. Salt Lake then switched us to LA center. LA center was very busy and it took a minute or so to check in. LA advised us we would have to stay north of BCE and CDC and I said we could not do that. We were now given a right turn to MLF which was now behind us and right into the weather. I replied 'unable'. We were now south of BCE and still southeast of CDC by a few miles heading approximately 260. A couple minutes later a different controller from LA center came on and told us to squawk 7700 and contact Nellis control which we did. Soon after contacting Nellis control I asked for and received direct KROST OAL INYOU flight plan route. The Nellis controller advised us that we had violated restricted airspace and had upset a [military] exercise. By our reckoning we entered a hot moa but not the restricted areas north and west of Nellis AFB. In hindsight it probably was not a good idea to send an airplane limited to essentially 240 westbound across the country in weather that was continually building. In the future I will not accept a one pack aircraft across the country with similar weather conditions. A one pack aircraft should be dispatched only in weather that can accommodate the FL250 restriction. If there is any doubt a different aircraft is in order. Looking back this aircraft should not have been dispatched on our route; given the same situation again I will refuse the aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.