Narrative:

We had just begun our decent out of FL380 to FL350 per ATC request. Center told us to maintain 320 KTS so we started down at 320 KTS. Flight attendant's dinged the cockpit; first officer said 'I'm off #1.' I said 'I've got it.' mem center gave us atl center frequency change. I contacted atl center. Controller gave me 'cross honie at 12;000 and 250 KTS. I put it in the FMS. Aircraft was in VNAV on decent profile at 320 KTS to cross honie at 12;000/250. All [was] good. As first officer checked back in with me we hit some moderate turbulence; I started to slow the aircraft to 310; then 300 KTS for the chop. I told him to tell ATC we had to slow for the chop. He complied and ATC said; 'no problem; let him know if we needed to slow more.' I put the speed-brakes out to try to stay on profile. ATC handed us off to atl approach; this is all happening at once; the turbulence; the first officer checking back in; the frequency change; getting the seatbelt sign back on; etc. First atl approach controller says turn left heading 010; expect ILS 9R. We turn to new heading and approach controller says 'were you given a crossing restriction?' we were passing 12;500 at the time. I told first officer 'tell him honie 12/250' first officer complied. Controller said you're a bit inside that. First officer looked at me and said 'did I miss something?' I laughed and said 'not really we just haven't had time to tell them we were going to have trouble hitting the fix since we slowed down; and got the handoff.' that was it. Honestly; there are just some things that do happen that are somewhat beyond our control. Hitting the turbulence at the exact same time first officer is checking back with me and was getting a handoff. I have to admit I had my hands full of airplane; my mouth full of radio; my finger on the seat-belt sign switch; and the first officer checking back in. Yep; I was task saturated. And it all happened in as much time as it took to read this last paragraph. I probably could have given the plane to the first officer and taken the time to explain to the controller what all had happened in the last two minutes; but at that point I felt it more prudent just to shut-up and continue the flight. If he really needed to know I'm sure there'd be a phone number waiting for me on the ground.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain describes events leading up to missing a crossing restriction during descent.

Narrative: We had just begun our decent out of FL380 to FL350 per ATC request. Center told us to maintain 320 KTS so we started down at 320 KTS. Flight Attendant's dinged the cockpit; First Officer said 'I'm off #1.' I said 'I've got it.' MEM Center gave us ATL Center frequency change. I contacted ATL Center. Controller gave me 'cross HONIE at 12;000 and 250 KTS. I put it in the FMS. Aircraft was in VNAV on decent profile at 320 KTS to cross HONIE at 12;000/250. All [was] good. As First Officer checked back in with me we hit some moderate turbulence; I started to slow the aircraft to 310; then 300 KTS for the chop. I told him to tell ATC we had to slow for the chop. He complied and ATC said; 'No problem; let him know if we needed to slow more.' I put the speed-brakes out to try to stay on profile. ATC handed us off to ATL Approach; this is all happening at once; the turbulence; the First Officer checking back in; the frequency change; getting the seatbelt sign back on; etc. First ATL Approach Controller says turn left heading 010; expect ILS 9R. We turn to new heading and Approach Controller says 'were you given a crossing restriction?' We were passing 12;500 at the time. I told First Officer 'tell him HONIE 12/250' First Officer complied. Controller said you're a bit inside that. First Officer looked at me and said 'did I miss something?' I laughed and said 'not really we just haven't had time to tell them we were going to have trouble hitting the fix since we slowed down; and got the handoff.' That was it. Honestly; there are just some things that do happen that are somewhat beyond our control. Hitting the turbulence at the exact same time First Officer is checking back with me and was getting a handoff. I have to admit I had my hands full of airplane; my mouth full of radio; my finger on the seat-belt sign switch; and the First Officer checking back in. Yep; I was task saturated. And it all happened in as much time as it took to read this last paragraph. I probably could have given the plane to the First Officer and taken the time to explain to the Controller what all had happened in the last two minutes; but at that point I felt it more prudent just to shut-up and continue the flight. If he really needed to know I'm sure there'd be a phone number waiting for me on the ground.

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.