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B737 captain descended below profile when an airspeed restriction from ATC prompted him to switch from VNAV to level change.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1155817 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201403 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.TRACON |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Descent |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 95 Flight Crew Total 11500 Flight Crew Type 5420 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
Cleared to descend via...RNAV arrival. Selected 8;000 ft and descended in VNAV. ATC then gave us a runway change and requested we slow to 230 KTS. I selected level change and selected 230 KTS. I then selected the runway on the electronic flight bag to determine how it affected the approach. ATC then queried our altitude and I realized I had descended below the profile in level change. I regained the profile and continued the descent.I believe there were multiple causes for this lapse: #1: I should have handed control to the first officer while I studied the new approach. #2: despite being an augmented crew of three pilots; neither of the other pilots spotted the discrepancy due; I believe; to fatigue. Because of the nature of this flight; the movies were being played over the PA system so that; even though we had a class 3 seat for rest; none of us could get any sleep. #3: this was the third day of early starts and long days. #4: distraction of a runway change.in the future I will make sure that I positively hand over control whenever I am not directly monitoring the aircraft; i.e. Selecting and briefing approaches from the efb etc. Also I will not assume my crew is rested just because we are legal and have three pilots.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B737 Captain descended below profile when an airspeed restriction from ATC prompted him to switch from VNAV to Level Change.
Narrative: Cleared to descend via...RNAV arrival. Selected 8;000 FT and descended in VNAV. ATC then gave us a runway change and requested we slow to 230 KTS. I selected Level Change and selected 230 KTS. I then selected the runway on the Electronic Flight Bag to determine how it affected the approach. ATC then queried our altitude and I realized I had descended below the profile in Level Change. I regained the profile and continued the descent.I believe there were multiple causes for this lapse: #1: I should have handed control to the First Officer while I studied the new approach. #2: Despite being an augmented crew of three pilots; neither of the other pilots spotted the discrepancy due; I believe; to fatigue. Because of the nature of this flight; the movies were being played over the PA system so that; even though we had a Class 3 seat for rest; none of us could get any sleep. #3: This was the third day of early starts and long days. #4: Distraction of a runway change.In the future I will make sure that I positively hand over control whenever I am not directly monitoring the aircraft; i.e. selecting and briefing approaches from the EFB etc. Also I will not assume my crew is rested just because we are legal and have three pilots.
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.