2009-09 · NASA ASRS report 852814
A B737 flight crew was distracted with programming both an arrival/runway change into the FMC and computing landing data for the new runway. Combined with confusion over the FMS mode status the result was a failure to meet a STAR crossing restriction.
I was Pilot Monitoring and my First Officer was Pilot Flying the leg. We had just finished the descent check descending through FL 180. It was ATIS changeover time as well; so I went off to collect the new info. Of course PHX changed from our original setup for arrival on Rwy 8 to now arriving Rwy 26 on the MAIER THREE Arrival. We were fully automated at this time with auto throttles; VNAV; and LNAV all working normally. While I was working; I was aware that ATC had asked us to increase our descent rate and speed to 300 KIAS and comply with the published restriction at BRUSR of 250 kts and 12000 feet. My First Officer sprang into action programming the FMC for the new descent and new runway while I worked on performance data. We had 8000 feet selected in the MCP altitude window for the RNAV arrival and were confident that the arrival was programmed correctly. On executing the new runway on the arrival with 8000 in the window; the computer was working as fast as it could; but not quick enough to level off at 12;000 feet. We both recognized this; although a little late; and the First Officer caught the altitude deviation at 11;700 and started to correct. ATC asked us about our descending via the MAIER THREE and I answered that was affirmative and we were correcting to 12;000. BRUSR transitioned behind us at this point. I would estimate we were within a mile of BRUSR for this whole episode. I should have recognized that my First Officer was reprogramming and was out of VNAV momentarily and at that point changed 8000 to 12;000 for the BRUSR restriction; but we were both VERY busy and omitted this action thus setting us up for the overshoot at BRUSR. We were a little time compressed between 18;000 feet and 12;000 feet and my monitoring broke down a little bit. We were victimized by the quadruple whammy of ATC requests; ATIS changeover; runway change; and automation reaction times. We could have used more ears; eyes; and hands in this event. We just ran out for a moment. After looking at what happened; I think we just missed resetting the MCP altitude after reprogramming the FMC and being out of VNAV mode. I could have directed my First Officer to fly the arrival using less automation while I handled the FMC as well. That way we aren't both distracted with programming performance data and the FMC. Also; just realize which panel is controlling the aircraft; the FMC or the MCP.
We were given the 'descend via' instruction; I dialed in 7000' in the MCP for the KUCOO crossing restriction. However; we were expecting the new ATIS to come out shortly. I had briefed the arrival and the approach. We were descending thru approximately FL240 when ABQ Center instructed us to maintain 300K or greater in the descent. I attempted multiple times to program the FMC for 300K; but the FMC would not accept the faster speed. Rather try and figure out what I was doing wrong; I disengaged the auto throttles and engaged V/S and dialed in approximately 3000 FPM rate of descent. I kept the thrust levers up also to expedite complying with the faster assigned airspeed.During this process; the Captain was getting the updated ATIS; since the time was close to top of the hour. The new ATIS came out and PHX was now landing west - Runways 25/26. The Captain was busy with the OPC; I was busy trying to make the faster airspeed and also complying with the crossing restriction at BRUSR; 250K/12;000 feet; the current descent profile had us high and not complying with the BRUSR altitude restriction. I was also heads down reprogramming the FMS arrival page; putting Runway 26 for the approach.I believe we had just been switched over to PHX Approach. The Captain was still entering data into the OPC when we got the switch. He had both hands busy so I reached over and switched the frequency for him. I glanced over at my instruments and saw we were at 11;700' but we were not at BRUSR yet. We were about 2 miles north. I correct back towards 12;000 ft.I believe this a classic case of task saturation; high cockpit workload in a busy approach environment; and poor task management on my part. Both the Captain and I were heads down. I should have reset the MCP to 12;000 ft to ensure we would not descend below the BRUSR altitude restriction since VNAV was no longer engaged. I should have also waited until the Captain was done with updating landing information before I began reprogramming the FMC. This would have had at least one of us monitoring aircraft performance.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.