Narrative:

During a reposition flight an altitude was busted due to miscommunication between ATC to crew and crew to crew. I was flying the plane after a long day of flying and the first officer had lower back pain from the 5 hour flight [earlier in the day;] which was keeping him preoccupied and taking his focus away from the task at hand. ATC ask us to descend from FL200 down to 16;000 feet 16 miles away from a fix. The first officer took the transmission and relayed it back to ATC. I heard him and ATC say 6;000. I proceeded to dial 6;000 in the altitude selector (usually the job of the PNF on our aircraft); but the first officer was suffering from back pain and I was operating all the dials in the cockpit. I was also operating the FMS. Giving a direct to the fix. I confirmed 6;000 with the first officer and he said; 'that's what he said'. I then said; '6;000 in the box' and heard him confirm it (it might have been out of habit and lack of focus due to pain) while descending through 13;000 feet I started slowing the aircraft to 250 KTS.upon reaching 10;500 feet roughly around 250 knots; ATC asked; 'are you stopping at 16;000?' the first officer took the radio and said; 'we busted through it; but will climb back up to 16;000'. ATC just said; 'alright' and handed us off to another controller. I climb the plane back up to 16;000 and continued flying. I then mentioned we should file a report.I believe we have to review sops and always confirm altitudes. Also; being relatively new to the company both pilots are still unfamiliar with company sops which should be reviewed with a more senior pilot.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DA2000 Captain reports an altitude deviation during descent due to an apparent misunderstanding of what ATC said and what the First Officer read back.

Narrative: During a reposition flight an altitude was busted due to miscommunication between ATC to crew and crew to crew. I was flying the plane after a long day of flying and the First Officer had lower back pain from the 5 hour flight [earlier in the day;] which was keeping him preoccupied and taking his focus away from the task at hand. ATC ask us to descend from FL200 down to 16;000 feet 16 miles away from a fix. The First Officer took the transmission and relayed it back to ATC. I heard him and ATC say 6;000. I proceeded to dial 6;000 in the altitude selector (usually the job of the PNF on our aircraft); but the First Officer was suffering from back pain and I was operating all the dials in the cockpit. I was also operating the FMS. Giving a direct to the fix. I confirmed 6;000 with the First Officer and he said; 'That's what he said'. I then said; '6;000 in the box' and heard him confirm it (it might have been out of habit and lack of focus due to pain) While descending through 13;000 feet I started slowing the aircraft to 250 KTS.Upon reaching 10;500 feet roughly around 250 knots; ATC asked; 'are you stopping at 16;000?' The First Officer took the radio and said; 'We busted through it; but will climb back up to 16;000'. ATC just said; 'Alright' and handed us off to another controller. I climb the plane back up to 16;000 and continued flying. I then mentioned we should file a report.I believe we have to review SOPs and always confirm altitudes. Also; being relatively new to the company both pilots are still unfamiliar with company SOPs which should be reviewed with a more senior pilot.

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.