Date: 201512
Local time of day: 0601-1200
Location: CLT.Airport, NC
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Daylight
Aircraft: Regional Jet 900 (CRJ900)
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Initial Approach
Airspace: Class E ZTL
ATC / advisory: Center ZTL
Aircraft component: GPS & Other Satellite Navigation
Component problem: Failed; Malfunctioning
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Distraction; Situational Awareness
Second reporter function: Pilot Flying; First Officer
Anomaly: Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation - Altitude Undershoot; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Human Factors
Primary problem: Aircraft

Narrative: Shortly before beginning the arrival into CLT; the aircraft's GPS lost signal and resulted in a 'GNSS Reverted' FMS status message. While trying to resolve the issue; we were told to descend via the arrival but got caught up in trying to fix the FMS message and ended up being high and above one of the altitude windows. We informed ATC we had a GPS issue and were unable to be within the altitude windows at which point the vectored us for an approach on runway 23 into CLT with no other deviations.


Second narrative: After starting a descent from FL310 to FL240; the captain asked me to cover COMM1 so he could talk to the FA's. ATC asked us to comply with the speeds on the arrival and I asked him if he had time to answer a question about speeds on the OPD. He then began answering my question in great length. The captain then signaled that he was back with me on the intercom. It was at this time that we noticed a GNSS2 REVERTED message on the FMS that caused my FMS map to go blank. With ATC still talking to us; and no VNAV information available; the descent rate of the aircraft remained constant. We got a handoff and the captain took over the radios. We decided to couple the autopilot to FMS1 since it was working properly. The captain then starting going through the MEL to see if there was a way to troubleshoot the issue. As I was pulling out my chart to brief the approach; I noticed that we were too high to meet the crossing restriction of 9000-10000. We informed ATC of our malfunction and they vectored us for RWY 23 instead of 18R to give us enough time to lose the excess altitude. The flight continued normally from that point on.Task saturation and lack of situational awareness due to an equipment malfunction and lack of communication between the flight crew due to ATC interference. With no navigation information on my side; the flight controls should have been immediately switched to the Captain side instead of trying to fly without any guidance on my side. I could have then focused on ATC communication and setting up the landing data for the approach and the captain would have had all the necessary information on his side to comply with the OPD arrival.


Synopsis: CRJ900 flight crew experienced a GPS failure during an RNAV arrival to CLT. The crew attempted to troubleshoot the problem rather than just transfer the flying duties to the Captain whose GPS was unaffected. This resulted in being high at a fix and ATC issued vectors to another runway to lose altitude.