<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1345803, April 2016

B737-800 flight crew reported an altitude deviation on approach to jfk that resulted when they lost autoflight mode awareness.

Attributes
ACN	1345803
Time
Date	201604
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	JFK.Airport
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Narrative:

Arrival into jfk; weather cavu. Captain was pilot flying; first officer was pilot monitoring. Planned and briefed the visual 13L with the rnv rnp runway 13L approach as backup. Approach cleared us direct to asalt; cross asalt 3;000; cleared approach. During the descent we received several calls for a VFR target at our 10-12 o'clock position. We never acquired the traffic visually; but had him on TCAS. Eventually approach advised traffic no factor; contact tower. On contact with tower we were cleared to land. Approaching asalt I noticed we were approximately 500 feet below the 3;000 foot crossing altitude. Somewhere during the descent while our attention was on the VFR traffic the plane dropped out of VNAV path and I didn't catch it. I disconnected the autopilot and returned to 3;000 feet. Once level I reengaged VNAV and completed the approach with no further problems.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-800 flight crew reported an altitude deviation on approach to JFK that resulted when they lost autoflight mode awareness.

Narrative: Arrival into JFK; weather CAVU. Captain was pilot flying; First Officer was pilot monitoring. Planned and briefed the visual 13L with the RNV RNP RWY 13L approach as backup. Approach cleared us direct to ASALT; cross ASALT 3;000; cleared approach. During the descent we received several calls for a VFR target at our 10-12 o'clock position. We never acquired the traffic visually; but had him on TCAS. Eventually Approach advised traffic no factor; contact Tower. On contact with Tower we were cleared to land. Approaching ASALT I noticed we were approximately 500 feet below the 3;000 foot crossing altitude. Somewhere during the descent while our attention was on the VFR traffic the plane dropped out of VNAV path and I didn't catch it. I disconnected the autopilot and returned to 3;000 feet. Once level I reengaged VNAV and completed the approach with no further problems.

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.