A321
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Distraction
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Aircraft; Procedure
Flying the HLYWD1 arrival into LAX; LA Center cleared us to descend via. The First Officer; pilot flying set 12;000 in the altitude window and managed the descent. The aircraft started down at 1;000 FPM. At the top of the hour I; the pilot monitoring; went off to get the new ATIS and load new info into the performance page. ATC called us and told us to climb and maintain FL240 till BRUEN. I looked up and we were at 23;300 about 15 miles short of BRUEN. We had checked all the crossing restrictions; they were all correct. The aircraft was descending in managed mode. I don't know why it descended below 240. I copied a phone number and called LA Center at the gate. He advised me that there was no loss of separation.Pilot flying and pilot monitoring did not do a good enough job monitoring the aircraft's descent.Do not rely on the aircraft to always make crossing restrictions. Both pilots have to monitor all the time.
Yet another Airbus busting its altitude restriction on the profile descent (descend via). This is a known issue with Airbus aircraft deleting the upcoming altitude constraint when the aircraft is in level flight already at the bottom of the upcoming altitude window on the arrival.The pilots were issued the 'Descend Via' and descended early; missing the 240B300 altitude window.Do not allow Airbus aircraft to fly in the National Airspace System (NAS) until they fix this ridiculous issue with their FMS. The system is setting its pilots up for failure; and this is becoming a daily occurrence. It is an ongoing major safety issue. So far we have gotten lucky and there have been no other aircraft involved; but sooner or later; we will not be so lucky. It is ridiculous that the Airbus engineers cannot get this straight.
A321 Captain and Los Angeles Center Controller reported that the Airbus did not comply with a crossing restriction.