First officer reports leveling off 3000 ft above assigned altitude during an unrestricted descent fr...

Attributes
ACN	849966
Time
Date	200908
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	Learjet 45
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 5500 Flight Crew Type 250
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Altitude Undershoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Narrative:

We were on an assigned heading and on an unrestricted descent for test purposes from FL300 to 5000 ft MSL. Descending through approximately 12;000 ft; we experienced an emergency due to our test and were running an emergency procedure plus experiencing intermittent radio problems. We inadvertently leveled at 8000 ft instead of 5000 ft due to being 95 NM from home base and a cloud deck at approximately 7000 ft. ATC queried us and revised our clearance to maintain 8000 ft. There was no other traffic and no conflict but it was contrary to the clearance. Contributing factors were fatigue (first officer worked 12 hour day the day prior until xa pm with the minimum 10 hours crew rest prior to this flight); an emergency; intermittent radio problems; non test related chatter on the intercom (past flight debrief reiterated a sterile cockpit environment) and an audio system being repaired.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: First Officer reports leveling off 3000 FT above assigned altitude during an unrestricted descent from FL300 on a test flight. An unspecified emergency situation existed at the time; along with distractions from the test crew and fatigue were cited as causal factors.

Narrative: We were on an assigned heading and on an unrestricted descent for test purposes from FL300 to 5000 FT MSL. Descending through approximately 12;000 FT; we experienced an emergency due to our test and were running an emergency procedure plus experiencing intermittent radio problems. We inadvertently leveled at 8000 FT instead of 5000 FT due to being 95 NM from home base and a cloud deck at approximately 7000 FT. ATC queried us and revised our clearance to maintain 8000 FT. There was no other traffic and no conflict but it was contrary to the clearance. Contributing factors were fatigue (First Officer worked 12 hour day the day prior until XA PM with the minimum 10 hours crew rest prior to this flight); an emergency; intermittent radio problems; non test related chatter on the intercom (past flight debrief reiterated a sterile cockpit environment) and an audio system being repaired.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

First officer reports leveling off 3000 ft above assigned altitude during an unrestricted descent from FL300 on a test flight. An unspecified emergency situation existed at the time; along with distractions from the test crew and fatigue were cited as causal factors.