An air carrier crew confused by ATC's sbgl arena 1A clearance flew direct suli after pai descending ...

Attributes
ACN	979773
Time
Date	201111
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SBGL.Tower
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	STAR ARENA 1A
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	First Officer Relief Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

Arena 1A (runway 15) arrival followed by 'ILS or localizer Z 15'. Received clearance 'descend via.' in a separate sentence there was also a clearance for ILS Z 15 approach. We tried to get confirmation as to what was meant by 'cleared via'. After pai VOR pilot flying went direct to a point on the final approach (lock or suli I think) and continued descent toward 2;000. Pilot not flying was monitoring arrival fixes after pai on fix page (as they had dropped out of legs page) and crosschecking their crossing altitudes. The approach has a fix 'natu' that does not appear on arrival chart. It is located outside of several fixes that do appear on arrival chart. Natu has a ball note for 'mandatory 7;000'' crossing. Mile or two outside of natu descending through 5;600 ft; ATC informed [us] we should be at 7;000. Pilot flying immediately climbed back to 7;000 ft to cross natu then continued descent. No terrain warnings received by egpws or ATC. Normal approach and landing followed. We need to get a clearer understanding of which lateral and vertical path (approach chart vs. Arrival chart) we are to be flying and have better situation awareness of the most conservative crossing restrictions depicted on the different charts.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier crew confused by ATC's SBGL ARENA 1A clearance flew direct SULI after PAI descending to 2;000 FT while observing FMC STAR constraints. However; the ILS/LOC Z Runway 15 7;000 FT NATU constraint on ILS is not shown on the FMC when following the ARENA 1A arrival; and was not observed on the approach.

Narrative: Arena 1A (RWY 15) Arrival followed by 'ILS or LOC Z 15'. Received clearance 'Descend Via.' In a separate sentence there was also a clearance for ILS Z 15 approach. We tried to get confirmation as to what was meant by 'cleared via'. After PAI VOR pilot flying went direct to a point on the final approach (LOCK or SULI I think) and continued descent toward 2;000. Pilot not flying was monitoring arrival fixes after PAI on fix page (as they had dropped out of legs page) and crosschecking their crossing altitudes. The approach has a fix 'NATU' that does not appear on Arrival chart. It is located outside of several fixes that do appear on arrival chart. NATU has a ball note for 'Mandatory 7;000'' crossing. Mile or two outside of NATU descending through 5;600 FT; ATC informed [us] we should be at 7;000. Pilot flying immediately climbed back to 7;000 FT to cross NATU then continued descent. No terrain warnings received by EGPWS or ATC. Normal approach and landing followed. We need to get a clearer understanding of which lateral and vertical path (approach chart vs. arrival chart) we are to be flying and have better situation awareness of the most conservative crossing restrictions depicted on the different charts.

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.