A320 captain reports missing a crossing restriction descending into iah. The crossing restriction ha...

Narrative:

With aircraft cruising at FL310 on arrival into iah; ATC gave clearance to cross riice at 12;000. Pilot flying put 12;000 at riice in FMC and pushed for managed descent. Pilot not flying confirmed entry and pilot flying also checked prog page; which showed below required path. The pilot flying thought the FMC was handling the descent properly and briefed the approach to runway 27. When 12 NM from riice; pilot flying realized there was still 10;000 ft to descend to cross riice at 12;000. Pilot flying directed pilot not flying to tell ATC that we would not make the crossing altitude at riice. ATC responded to do the best possible. Soon thereafter; ATC gave a frequency change and new controller gave a descent to 7;000. The aircraft crossed riice at approximately 14;000 and continued descending to 7;000. The remainder of the approach and landing was uneventful. Neither pilot flying nor pilot not flying could figure out how the altitude constraint was not met by the FMC when originally all indicators looked good. There was a distraction by being given an unexpected runway while descending. The briefing; although fairly short; was enough to divert attention long enough to loose situational awareness concerning the crossing restriction.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reports missing a crossing restriction descending into IAH. The crossing restriction had been entered into the FMGC and a managed descent initiated. A runway change was entered during the descent.

Narrative: With aircraft cruising at FL310 on arrival into IAH; ATC gave clearance to cross RIICE at 12;000. Pilot flying put 12;000 at RIICE in FMC and pushed for managed descent. Pilot not flying confirmed entry and pilot flying also checked Prog page; which showed below required path. The pilot flying thought the FMC was handling the descent properly and briefed the approach to Runway 27. When 12 NM from RIICE; pilot flying realized there was still 10;000 FT to descend to cross RIICE at 12;000. Pilot flying directed pilot not flying to tell ATC that we would not make the crossing altitude at RIICE. ATC responded to do the best possible. Soon thereafter; ATC gave a frequency change and new controller gave a descent to 7;000. The aircraft crossed RIICE at approximately 14;000 and continued descending to 7;000. The remainder of the approach and landing was uneventful. Neither pilot flying nor pilot not flying could figure out how the altitude constraint was not met by the FMC when originally all indicators looked good. There was a distraction by being given an unexpected runway while descending. The briefing; although fairly short; was enough to divert attention long enough to loose situational awareness concerning the crossing restriction.

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.

Attributes
ACN	955672
Time
Date	201106
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZHU.ARTCC
State Reference	TX
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 184 Flight Crew Total 16000 Flight Crew Type 2100
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Procedural Clearance

A320 captain reports missing a crossing restriction descending into iah. The crossing restriction had been entered into the FMGC and a managed descent initiated. A runway change was entered during the descent.