ATC's late airspeed change to a crossing restriction as the flight approached queny on the eagul RNA...

Narrative:

We were descending into phx on the eagul 5 RNAV STAR. The arrival had published restrictions of 210 KTS/9;000 ft at queny and 120 KTS/7;000 ft at hiney. Approximately 5NM from queny intersection we were told to delete the 210K speed restriction at queny. As the aircraft was [already] in altitude capture at 9;000 ft; I deleted the both the speed and altitude restrictions from the flight plan page of the FMS. As a result the aircraft [instead of leveling at 9;000 ft] continued a managed descent to the next altitude restriction; 7;000 ft at hiney. I noticed the error immediately and attempted to arrest the descent by setting 9;000 ft in the altitude window and manually selecting a positive vertical speed. We corrected the descent about 250-300 ft below 9;000 ft but were immediately reminded by phx approach to maintain 9;000 ft. By that time we were already back to 9;000 ft. We were given a last minute clearance to deviate from a published RNAV arrival procedure. That led to us being rushed causing a breakdown in procedure and causing a slight altitude deviation.ATC should not change so many restrictions on published arrivals. I should have simply disconnected the auto-pilot and corrected the deviation by hand.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ATC's late airspeed change to a crossing restriction as the flight approached QUENY on the EAGUL RNAV STAR to PHX; compounded by an FMC programming error; resulted in the deletion of both the speed and altitude restrictions and allowed the A321 to descend 250-300 FT below the required 9;000 MSL.

Narrative: We were descending into PHX on the EAGUL 5 RNAV STAR. The arrival had published restrictions of 210 KTS/9;000 FT at QUENY and 120 KTS/7;000 FT at HINEY. Approximately 5NM from QUENY intersection we were told to delete the 210K speed restriction at QUENY. As the aircraft was [already] in altitude capture at 9;000 FT; I deleted the both the speed and altitude restrictions from the Flight Plan page of the FMS. As a result the aircraft [instead of leveling at 9;000 FT] continued a managed descent to the next altitude restriction; 7;000 FT at HINEY. I noticed the error immediately and attempted to arrest the descent by setting 9;000 FT in the altitude window and manually selecting a positive vertical speed. We corrected the descent about 250-300 FT below 9;000 FT but were immediately reminded by PHX Approach to maintain 9;000 FT. By that time we were already back to 9;000 FT. We were given a last minute clearance to deviate from a published RNAV Arrival procedure. That led to us being rushed causing a breakdown in procedure and causing a slight altitude deviation.ATC should not change so many restrictions on published arrivals. I should have simply disconnected the auto-pilot and corrected the deviation by hand.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1071507
Time
Date	201303
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	PHX.Airport
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A321
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR EAGUL FIVE
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance

ATC's late airspeed change to a crossing restriction as the flight approached queny on the eagul RNAV STAR to phx; compounded by an FMC programming error; resulted in the deletion of both the speed and altitude restrictions and allowed the A321 to descend 250-300 ft below the required 9;000 MSL.