Narrative:

We were flying the raskl 1 into rdu. We had been cleared to descend via the arrival. We set 6;000 ft in the altitude selector and were descending in VNAV path. During the descent; ATC asked us what altitude we were planning on descending to. We responded 6;000 ft as the last altitude depicted on the arrival was nedic 6;000 ft. He said that two company aircraft had descended to 4;000 ft after nedic that day and wanted to know if we saw any reason that they might have done so. There seems to be a problem with the way crews understand this arrival. When the raskl arrival and ILS 5R are loaded in the FMC; there is no disconnect in the route. Pecit is the last fix on the arrival and the first fix on the approach. Pecit is loaded in the FMC with a 4;000 ft crossing altitude. I don't know whether these crews thought they had been cleared for the approach or made a mistake in understanding the descend via clearance. Since pecit is on both the arrival and the approach; crews may think they are cleared to descend to 4;000 at pecit with the descend via clearance. I think this is a new STAR and there seems to be a problem with crews understanding the clearance limit.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ATC reported that air carrier crews on the RDU RASKL 1 RNAV were descending to 4;000 FT after NEDIE when the depicted clearance is NEDIE at or about 6;000 FT with no required descent until cleared by ATC after NEDIE. The RDU 5R ILS depicts PECIT at 4;000 FT but it is not mandatory.

Narrative: We were flying the RASKL 1 into RDU. We had been cleared to descend via the arrival. We set 6;000 FT in the altitude selector and were descending in VNAV Path. During the descent; ATC asked us what altitude we were planning on descending to. We responded 6;000 FT as the last altitude depicted on the arrival was NEDIC 6;000 FT. He said that two Company aircraft had descended to 4;000 FT after NEDIC that day and wanted to know if we saw any reason that they might have done so. There seems to be a problem with the way crews understand this arrival. When the RASKL arrival and ILS 5R are loaded in the FMC; there is no disconnect in the route. PECIT is the last fix on the arrival and the first fix on the approach. PECIT is loaded in the FMC with a 4;000 FT crossing altitude. I don't know whether these crews thought they had been cleared for the approach or made a mistake in understanding the descend via clearance. Since PECIT is on both the arrival and the approach; crews may think they are cleared to descend to 4;000 at PECIT with the descend via clearance. I think this is a new STAR and there seems to be a problem with crews understanding the clearance limit.

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.