Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Distraction
Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors
Flight was routine and operations normal on night flight along the East Coast with only six passengers onboard. I was the pilot flying on this flight. We were filed for FL360. As part of the cockpit chatter above 10;000 FT; I talked to First Officer on climbout about how the East Coast has you at an odd altitude when you are headed westbound vs. the normal odd altitude when eastbound every where else in the USA. We requested FL370 for final altitude and received that altitude. This particular night was the height of a meteor shower as we had seen quite a few meteors the previous night and seen a news report on TV about the shower. We had the cockpit lights turned down lower than normal and were scanning the sky more than normal for meteors. About mid flight the First Officer answered a radio call from ATC to turn to heading 360. I was looking out the left window and was viewing the Milky Way and thinking about the meteors and missed part of the transmission. I heard '360' and reached over and set FL360 on the FCP; checked the FMA and said 'FL360'. The First Officer did not confirm that. We leveled off at FL360 and were there about a minute or two when ATC said 'Climb to FL370'. We climbed back up and; after a couple of minutes; ATC said that they had given us a heading of 360 vs. altitude. At that time; the First Officer and I said that we would fill out a report on this.Contributing factors to this occurrence: Cockpit lighting was lower than normal. Extra attention was being paid outside the aircraft as a result of the spectacular meteor showers [and] previous conversation about East Coast sometimes wrong way altitudes. Breakdown of CRM in that I did not press the First Officer to confirm my FCP action (she turned and was looking out the right side for meteors). A suggestion to avoid future occurrences is to follow existing pilot flying/pilot not flying duties as outlined in our manuals. These CRM procedures would prevent this occurrence every time.
I was the pilot not flying at cruise. We were cleared to FL370 and were in NAV mode in the vicinity of CRG VOR. ATC asked us to turn ten degrees left for traffic and we complied. ATC then came back and said she needed us further left for traffic and asked us to turn to a heading of 360. I read back 'heading 360' Then said to the Captain '360.' The Captain dialed in an altitude of 36;000 FT and descended. I did not notice the descent and never verified his input. We did not get a CAWS call out of '1;000 FT.' After a few minutes ATC asked us what altitude we were at. It was then that I noticed the error. I told her we were at 36;000 FT. She said that she had assigned us heading 360; not 36;000 FT and that we should climb back to 37;000 FT and turn to heading 360. We complied. On descent into BWI; ATC advised us to call them once on the ground.When directing the pilot flying; I should have worded the instructions as heading 360; and not just 360. I also should have verified his input with mandatory call outs. These parameters are already a part of our SOP; I just did not follow them.
An Air Carrier flight crew; distracted while viewing a meteor shower; turned to heading 360 when ATC's call was actually to climb to FL360. ATC detected the error.