Narrative:

We were holding as published over shine at FL210. As we began the turn to the inbound leg towards shine; ATC re-cleared us to clt via direct shine and to cross shine at 250 knots and 12;000 feet. I read back the clearance and informed ATC we would be unable the altitude. We were told not worry about the speed and to cross shine at 12;000 feet. I informed ATC we were 9 NM from shine with 9;000 feet to descend. We could not make the altitude. The frequency was congested and we did not hear back from ATC again until we were over shine at which time he told us to contact clt approach. We contacted clt approach and told them we were still descending to 12;000. We crossed shine at approx 13;000 feet. I looked at our proximity to shine and the amount of altitude we needed to lose to make the crossing restriction. The rate of descent needed was 1000 per NM. This worked out to 3x the normal rate of descent. ATC would not issue us an amended altitude or relief on the crossing restriction despite that I informed ATC two times we could not make the altitude. I informed ATC twice we would be unable achieve the altitude by shine. Without an amended clearance; we did the best we could to make the restriction. ATC should have issued relief on the crossing restriction given our proximity to shine or allow us to do an additional turn in the holding pattern to lose altitude.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier First Officer reports being issued an unreasonable crossing restriction which is immediately pointed out to ATC. The speed portion of the crossing restriction is lifted; but the altitude portion was still not obtained; which was again pointed out to ATC without response.

Narrative: We were holding as published over SHINE at FL210. As we began the turn to the inbound leg towards SHINE; ATC re-cleared us to CLT via direct SHINE and to cross SHINE at 250 knots and 12;000 feet. I read back the clearance and informed ATC we would be unable the altitude. We were told not worry about the speed and to cross SHINE at 12;000 feet. I informed ATC we were 9 NM from SHINE with 9;000 feet to descend. We could not make the altitude. The frequency was congested and we did not hear back from ATC again until we were over SHINE at which time he told us to contact CLT Approach. We contacted CLT approach and told them we were still descending to 12;000. We crossed SHINE at approx 13;000 feet. I looked at our proximity to SHINE and the amount of altitude we needed to lose to make the crossing restriction. The rate of descent needed was 1000 per NM. This worked out to 3x the normal rate of descent. ATC would not issue us an amended altitude or relief on the crossing restriction despite that I informed ATC two times we could not make the altitude. I informed ATC twice we would be unable achieve the altitude by SHINE. Without an amended clearance; we did the best we could to make the restriction. ATC should have issued relief on the crossing restriction given our proximity to SHINE or allow us to do an additional turn in the holding pattern to lose altitude.

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.