B737-700
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Altitude Undershoot; Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Aircraft Equipment Problem Dissipated; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Aircraft; Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors; Environment - Non Weather Related
Just prior to Top of Descent; I was trying obtain current weather and gate information at LGA. We kept getting an 'ACARS NO COMM' message; so we weren't able to obtain any landing data up to that point. I began to try and monitor the LGA ATIS; but realized we were out of radio range. Then we were issued a crossing restriction to cross the RIDGY intersection at FL270. The First Officer; the Pilot Flying; set that altitude in the MCP; and I confirmed that to him. Then he briefed the KORRY 3 Arrival; and I told him I would do my best to obtain weather; landing data; and gate information. Due to our ACARS NO COMM problem; I kept having trouble obtaining any information.So then I decided to try and obtain the local LGA METAR off of our [EFB]; but the WiFi had dropped off. I kept trying to reboot the app and finally got it running. Then I decided to use our [Company] App with the WiFi to see if we could obtain any weather briefing landing data from it. If not; I was planning on using the [Performance Computer] as a backup. Then we got all of our requested ACARS information all at once when ACARS decided to come alive. We received multiple chimes for the ATIS; field conditions; and gate information; as well as Dispatch right as we received a frequency change with Center. He asked me to verify if we had been given a crossing restriction at RIDGY and I confirmed we had.Then we realized that VNAV was not going to meet that restriction because it was coded as 27;000 feet at RIDGY; and not FL 270 as it should have been. That was our error. My First Officer then disconnected VNAV and engaged the Level Change mode with the speedbrakes deployed. However we quickly realized that we might have trouble meeting that restriction. I tried contacting the Controller back as quickly as we noticed this; but due to frequency congestion; I could not get thru to inform him in a timely manner. We missed the RIDGY restriction by a few thousand feet because we weren't able to increase our speed any further due to turbulence and had to accept the fact that we were going to end up high on profile.If ACARS had been working properly; and if our WiFi had been working properly; and if I had been able to verbally hear the LGA ATIS; we could have had all of our required duties completed prior to Top of Descent. All these issues collectively created a huge distraction for us at a very critical time. I usually monitor very well; but felt completely task saturated in dealing with our communication issues with our equipment. It certainly caused me to take my mind off of our vertical profile at a very bad time; and not monitor as well as I usually always do. Moving forward; if we completely remove the [Performance Computer] off of our aircraft and continue to have ACARS and WiFi connectivity issues; without any other form of equipment backup; there may continue to be issues with distractions involving both vertical and lateral navigation due to one Pilot being removed from the equation. We will not be able to continually verbalize; verify; monitor; and intervene as we are normally used to. The added distraction of inop ACARS; intermittent WiFi; and no other form of backup data may be too cumulative to prevent the VVMI methods we so heavily rely on to work for us as they are supposed to.
A B737 Captain reported missing an altitude restriction due to an FMC programming error and distractions caused by ACARS problems.