Narrative:

We were on an IFR flight to ewr and assigned the PHLBO3 arrival. We were given instructions to descend via the arrival and proceeded to do so. Upon reaching the crossing restriction altitude for the somto intersection; we leveled off approximately 5 miles prior to the intersection. At this time the captain; the pilot flying; asked me to give him the class B airspace information. I proceeded to evaluate the class B airspace chart for ewr and when I looked up I noticed something did not look right. After a short evaluation of our location; I determined that we had passed our step down point to cross the dylan intersection at 8;000 ft and advised the captain to descend to 8;000 ft MSL. At this time; we were told top contact new york center and the controller realized we were at 10;800 ft. He instructed us to descend to 8;000 and turn right to a 120 heading. We were then turned back on course and handed off to new york. The captain said he thought we had met all of the crossing restrictions since the VNAV glide slope had gone away after we passed the somto intersection. We were never given a TCAS alert and no aircraft was seen by the crew. I believe the concern for the class B airspace and the busy airspace caused a loss of situational awareness by the flying pilot. While I was distracted by the task asked of me; I could have reminded the captain of the crossing restriction before looking into his request. The crew was trying to insure the utmost safety and abide by all regulations. The timing of the planning was maybe at the wrong time and could have contributed to the deviation.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: IA1125 First Officer reports the Captain missing the crossing restriction at DYLAN on the PHLBO3 RNAV arrival to EWR while the First Officer is evaluating the Class B airspace. ATC issues vectors.

Narrative: We were on an IFR flight to EWR and assigned the PHLBO3 arrival. We were given instructions to descend via the arrival and proceeded to do so. Upon reaching the crossing restriction altitude for the SOMTO Intersection; we leveled off approximately 5 miles prior to the intersection. At this time the Captain; the pilot flying; asked me to give him the Class B airspace information. I proceeded to evaluate the Class B airspace chart for EWR and when I looked up I noticed something did not look right. After a short evaluation of our location; I determined that we had passed our step down point to cross the DYLAN Intersection at 8;000 FT and advised the Captain to descend to 8;000 FT MSL. At this time; we were told top contact New York Center and the Controller realized we were at 10;800 FT. He instructed us to descend to 8;000 and turn right to a 120 heading. We were then turned back on course and handed off to New York. The Captain said he thought we had met all of the crossing restrictions since the VNAV glide slope had gone away after we passed the SOMTO Intersection. We were never given a TCAS alert and no aircraft was seen by the crew. I believe the concern for the Class B airspace and the busy airspace caused a loss of situational awareness by the flying pilot. While I was distracted by the task asked of me; I could have reminded the Captain of the crossing restriction before looking into his request. The crew was trying to insure the utmost safety and abide by all regulations. The timing of the planning was maybe at the wrong time and could have contributed to the deviation.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.