There is communication confusion between an approach controller and the flight crew of a business je...

Attributes
ACN	870921
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Light Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	STAR HONIE
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Approach Instructor
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Radar 21
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 78 Flight Crew Total 22670 Flight Crew Type 1560
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

A bizjet was assigned runway 26R at atl; arriving from the southwest. He was initially issued the 26R transition off of the honie RNAV arrival. This transition would join the north downwind at nofiv but aircraft was turned and cleared to resume the arrival at fanew which is further east on the downwind. The arrival says to 'expect' to cross fanew at 7000 ft. Aircraft began a descent to cross fanew at 7000 even though last assigned altitude was 13;000. Unauthorized descent was observed and control instructions were issued to maintain separation from other aircraft. This type of incident has happened here at A80 on many occasions. There seems to be much confusion in the pilot community as to how to operate on descend via clearances. These types of clearances are not currently in use at A80.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: There is communication confusion between an Approach Controller and the Flight Crew of a business jet on the HONIE RNAV STAR to ATL; resulting in an excursion from an assigned altitude.

Narrative: A bizjet was assigned Runway 26R at ATL; arriving from the southwest. He was initially issued the 26R transition off of the HONIE RNAV arrival. This transition would join the north downwind at NOFIV but aircraft was turned and cleared to resume the arrival at FANEW which is further east on the downwind. The arrival says to 'expect' to cross FANEW at 7000 FT. Aircraft began a descent to cross FANEW at 7000 even though last assigned altitude was 13;000. Unauthorized descent was observed and control instructions were issued to maintain separation from other aircraft. This type of incident has happened here at A80 on many occasions. There seems to be much confusion in the pilot community as to how to operate on descend via clearances. These types of clearances are not currently in use at A80.

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.

There is communication confusion between an approach controller and the flight crew of a business jet on the honie RNAV STAR to atl; resulting in an excursion from an assigned altitude.