Narrative:

We had just been handed over to houston center from fort worth and were on the drllr four arrival. Houston center gave us a descent to FL240. The altitude was set and we started our descent. Shortly thereafter; ATC gave us a [clearance] 'descend via the drllr except maintain 310 KTS to sstax; then comply with the published speeds.' I read back the clearance and the bottom altitude was set and confirmed. The threat that was never discussed or caught was that the fix; oilll; was supposed to be crossed at or above FL240. During the brief the ca said he would fly the vertical path indicator (vpi) on the arrival. I'm not sure what happened; but for some reason he didn't fly the vpi. I was heads down for some reason; I believe I was looking in my jeppesen binder to see where we were parking and to find the approach chart for the runway. The next thing I know; he states that he is stopping the descent. I look up to see what's going on and he says the he was supposed to cross oilll at or above FL240. We had descended almost 1;000 feet below that when he stopped the descent. I'm disappointed in myself for not being a diligent pm. I trusted that he was going execute the descent the way he had briefed and therefore didn't ever think we were going to bust through a crossing restriction. I'm normally very meticulous about following along on the arrival to make sure that we will meet all the restrictions. This one seemed so benign because we weren't even in the challenging part of the arrival yet; i.e. There were no windows or speed restrictions that had to be met.the threat was that we were descending to an assigned altitude which happened to be a crossing restriction of at or above FL240. When given a clearance to descend via; we didn't catch that we couldn't set the bottom altitude yet until we had passed the fix. The error was that the PF must have lost his situational awareness and didn't realize where the aircraft was in relation to the procedure. I; the pm; failed to monitor and crosscheck because of performing other tasks. Be more diligent when performing challenging tasks in our aircraft. Don't get complacent and assume the pilot flying is on top of things.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Two EMB145 Check Airmen; one in the right seat and one on the jump seat; report a missed crossing restriction on the DRLLR4 arrival by the Captain flying. The flying Captain did not recognize the FL240 crossing restriction at OILLL and did not follow the Vertical Path Indicator (VPI) as briefed.

Narrative: We had just been handed over to Houston Center from Fort Worth and were on the DRLLR FOUR arrival. Houston center gave us a descent to FL240. The altitude was set and we started our descent. Shortly thereafter; ATC gave us a [clearance] 'descend via the DRLLR except maintain 310 KTS to SSTAX; then comply with the published speeds.' I read back the clearance and the bottom altitude was set and confirmed. The threat that was never discussed or caught was that the fix; OILLL; was supposed to be crossed at or above FL240. During the brief the CA said he would fly the Vertical Path Indicator (VPI) on the arrival. I'm not sure what happened; but for some reason he didn't fly the VPI. I was heads down for some reason; I believe I was looking in my Jeppesen binder to see where we were parking and to find the approach chart for the runway. The next thing I know; he states that he is stopping the descent. I look up to see what's going on and he says the he was supposed to cross OILLL at or above FL240. We had descended almost 1;000 feet below that when he stopped the descent. I'm disappointed in myself for not being a diligent PM. I trusted that he was going execute the descent the way he had briefed and therefore didn't ever think we were going to bust through a crossing restriction. I'm normally very meticulous about following along on the arrival to make sure that we will meet all the restrictions. This one seemed so benign because we weren't even in the challenging part of the arrival yet; i.e. there were no windows or speed restrictions that had to be met.The threat was that we were descending to an assigned altitude which happened to be a crossing restriction of at or above FL240. When given a clearance to descend via; we didn't catch that we couldn't set the bottom altitude yet until we had passed the fix. The error was that the PF must have lost his situational awareness and didn't realize where the aircraft was in relation to the procedure. I; the PM; failed to monitor and crosscheck because of performing other tasks. Be more diligent when performing challenging tasks in our aircraft. Don't get complacent and assume the pilot flying is on top of things.

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.