Narrative:

We were assigned to cross rebit intersection at 17;000 feet. I was pilot monitoring. We were about 20 miles from the fix and I queried ATC as to our arrival. We were not filed for any STAR. They gave us the coway one papa arrival for ILS 33R. I looked up at our descent progress and we were on profile to reach rebit at 17;000 feet. I inserted the arrival in the flight plan; and then realized we were not going to make rebit at 17;000 feet; and announced as such to the pilot flying. I realized then that he was typing to activate the secondary which he had briefed as a backup. There were two coway arrivals that would work for 33R; so I just thought it would be faster for me to insert the arrival in the primary flight plan. We never made rebit at 17;000 feet and never heard anything from ATC. The first officer told me upon debrief that the FMS went to vertical speed mode when I started typing; but he was focused upon activating the secondary flight plan. Moral of the story: someone needs to fly the jet; all the time; only one person can type. I should have caught that. There were frequency changes; and other things happening to keep the pilot monitoring busy. The pilot flying should just fly; period.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Widebody Transport flight crew; both intent on entering arrival data in the FMC; missed an assigned crossing altitude.

Narrative: We were assigned to cross REBIT Intersection at 17;000 feet. I was Pilot monitoring. We were about 20 miles from the fix and I queried ATC as to our arrival. We were not filed for any STAR. They gave us the Coway One papa arrival for ILS 33R. I looked up at our descent progress and we were on profile to reach REBIT at 17;000 feet. I inserted the arrival in the Flight plan; and then realized we were not going to make REBIT at 17;000 feet; and announced as such to the pilot flying. I realized then that he was typing to activate the secondary which he had briefed as a backup. There were two Coway arrivals that would work for 33R; so I just thought it would be faster for me to insert the arrival in the primary flight plan. We never made REBIT at 17;000 feet and never heard anything from ATC. The First Officer told me upon debrief that the FMS went to Vertical Speed mode when I started typing; but he was focused upon activating the secondary flight plan. Moral of the story: Someone needs to fly the jet; all the time; only one person can type. I should have caught that. There were frequency changes; and other things happening to keep the Pilot Monitoring busy. The Pilot Flying should just fly; period.

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.