EMB175 flight crew reports being cleared to 11000 feet and setting up the the FMC and MCP to accompl...

Narrative:

We were flying in VNAV cleared to cross boone at 11;000 feet. 11;000 feet was dialed into the altitude window; followed by /11000 entered next to the boone fix; activate was selected; 'pink alt' was verified on the pfd. At some point after this we were asked if we had a lower clearance and I answered yes we [were] cleared down to 11;000 feet. At this point I realized that we were almost to boone and still at 22;000 feet. We looked at the mcdu and realized when the activate button was pressed it had not activated. I know that the procedures were followed to correctly set up and execute a VNAV descent. However; I should have been more thorough in my cami checklist. The activate button was pushed but either not hard enough or it did not engage for some reason. I should have and will be more vigilant in verifying the data entry.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB175 Flight Crew reports being cleared to 11000 feet and setting up the the FMC and MCP to accomplish this clearance but apparently not pushing the activate button firmly enough. The aircraft remains at FL220 until queried by ATC.

Narrative: We were flying in VNAV cleared to cross BOONE at 11;000 feet. 11;000 feet was dialed into the altitude window; followed by /11000 entered next to the BOONE fix; activate was selected; 'pink alt' was verified on the PFD. At some point after this we were asked if we had a lower clearance and I answered yes we [were] cleared down to 11;000 feet. At this point I realized that we were almost to BOONE and still at 22;000 feet. We looked at the MCDU and realized when the activate button was pressed it had not activated. I know that the procedures were followed to correctly set up and execute a VNAV descent. However; I should have been more thorough in my CAMI checklist. The activate button was pushed but either not hard enough or it did not engage for some reason. I should have and will be more vigilant in verifying the data entry.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1187993
Time
Date	201407
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ORD.Airport
State Reference	IL
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	EMB ERJ 170/175 ER/LR
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Altitude Undershoot

EMB175 flight crew reports being cleared to 11000 feet and setting up the the FMC and MCP to accomplish this clearance but apparently not pushing the activate button firmly enough. The aircraft remains at FL220 until queried by ATC.