<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1227798, December 2014

A pilot descending via the arrival into ZZZ stopped his descent at 9;500 feet because he forgot the descent clearance. After verifying approach clearance with ATC; the descent was fast and high crossing ZZZ intersection.

Attributes
ACN	1227798
Time
Date	201412
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
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
Route In Use	STAR ZZZ
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 210 Flight Crew Total 12000 Flight Crew Type 4500
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Speed All Types

Narrative:

We were given to descend via the ZZZ arrival. We descended and made all the speed and crossing restrictions down to 10;000 feet. ATC told us to maintain 310 knots and then given to reduce to 250 knots at our discretion. After reducing to 250 knots; the aircraft started to continue to descend via the arrival as it should have. However; around 9500 feet I stopped the aircraft from descending because I had thought 10;000 feet was our last assigned altitude but had forgotten we were cleared to descend via the arrival. The long time at 10;000 feet apparently caused me to assume that was the last assigned altitude though we were given descend via early in the arrival. We verified with ATC that we were cleared to descend via the arrival and they stated affirmative. The brief stop in the descent caused us to be 300 feet high and above the 210 knot restriction over the ZZZ intersection. However; prior to crossing the ZZZ intersection; ATC told us to descend and maintain 5000 feet. We also were given the option to land on runway xx versus our original assigned runway xyl. We chose to land runway xx without further incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot descending via the arrival into ZZZ stopped his descent at 9;500 feet because he forgot the descent clearance. After verifying approach clearance with ATC; the descent was fast and high crossing ZZZ intersection.

Narrative: We were given to descend via the ZZZ arrival. We descended and made all the speed and crossing restrictions down to 10;000 feet. ATC told us to maintain 310 knots and then given to reduce to 250 knots at our discretion. After reducing to 250 knots; the aircraft started to continue to descend via the arrival as it should have. However; around 9500 feet I stopped the aircraft from descending because I had thought 10;000 feet was our last assigned altitude but had forgotten we were cleared to descend via the arrival. The long time at 10;000 feet apparently caused me to assume that was the last assigned altitude though we were given descend via early in the arrival. We verified with ATC that we were cleared to descend via the arrival and they stated affirmative. The brief stop in the descent caused us to be 300 feet high and above the 210 knot restriction over the ZZZ intersection. However; prior to crossing the ZZZ intersection; ATC told us to descend and maintain 5000 feet. We also were given the option to land on runway XX versus our original assigned runway XYL. We chose to land runway XX without further incident.

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.