Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Procedure
FMS programming error while descending via SNKPT2 RNAV Arrival; landing northeast transition (my first time flying this arrival) and attempting to delete speed restrictions at NADEE and KNIGT waypoints.Earlier in flight; INDY Center issued descend via clearance 'Except maintain 310 KTS or Greater' and we also heard a company flight behind us given a speed restriction (to reduce speed). On initial contact with INDY Approach; we were told to 'fly as fast as you like.' Clearly we were 'leading the pack' so I discussed with First Officer (PF) deleting the 230 KTS at NADEE and 210 KTS at KNIGT so as to maintain 250 (below 10;000). He concurred; and I QUICKLY (to expedite FMS recalculation while remaining in VNAV) edited FMS NADEE restriction from '230/7000A' to '/7000A' and KNIGT '210/6000' to '/6000A' (KEY MISTAKE!). After having PF confirm my edits; I executed to changes. The aircraft began to level off at 9;300 MSL. After briefly trying to determine the cause (not yet realizing the /6000A was the problem) I advised the PF to continue the descent in vertical speed mode while we troubleshot the problem; and while this took us out of VNAV; I determined that NADEE above 7000 restriction would be met. Approaching NADEE we were switched to another approach frequency and I reported 'Descending via SNKPT2 except speeds deleted; presently 250 knots.' The controller instructed us to 'Slow to 210; then descend to 4;000;' which by rule; deleted the KNIGT 6;000 crossing restriction; which was very fortunate because as we sequenced KNIGT; I again looked at the STAR Chart and realized the KNIGT 6;000 HAD BEEN A MANDATORY ALTITUDE and we would NOT have met the restriction!
Air carrier Captain reported inadvertently entering into the FMS values that resulted in a crossing restriction not made.