A319 flight crew is informed by ATC that they are off course. It is determined that the pre departur...

Attributes
ACN	1119720
Time
Date	201310
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZDC.ARTCC
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 15500 Flight Crew Type 5200
Person 2
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

While climbing out of dca on J149 to rod on our way to our cruise altitude of 380; washington center said she showed us routed on Q72 to hacks. We were on J149. We replied that we were on J149. At that time; I looked down at our pre departure clearance which had; indeed; included a revised segment via Q72. During setup; we both missed the revised segment on the pre departure clearance. For many years; the pre departure clearance format from ACARS had the filed route on top just below the xpdr code; followed by the revised segment; followed by remarks at the bottom. Recently; the revised segment and filed route were reversed; with the revised segment on top; followed by the filed route. When we both looked at the pre departure clearance; we both looked at the filed route; thinking we were looking at the revised segment. Since it agreed with what we had put into the FMGC; we thought we were good to go. Two things contributed to this error. First; the reversal in the pre departure clearance format; and second; the high frequency of times where we have revised segments that are exactly as we are filed. This is what we both thought we had on this flight.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew is informed by ATC that they are off course. It is determined that the PDC clearance via ACARS was misinterpreted and a revised segment was not entered in the FMGC.

Narrative: While climbing out of DCA on J149 to ROD on our way to our cruise altitude of 380; Washington Center said she showed us routed on Q72 to Hacks. We were on J149. We replied that we were on J149. At that time; I looked down at our PDC which had; indeed; included a revised segment via Q72. During setup; we both missed the revised segment on the PDC. For many years; the PDC format from ACARS had the filed route on top just below the XPDR code; followed by the revised segment; followed by remarks at the bottom. Recently; the revised segment and filed route were reversed; with the revised segment on top; followed by the filed route. When we both looked at the PDC; we both looked at the filed route; thinking we were looking at the revised segment. Since it agreed with what we had put into the FMGC; we thought we were good to go. Two things contributed to this error. First; the reversal in the PDC format; and second; the high frequency of times where we have revised segments that are exactly as we are filed. This is what we both thought we had on this flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

A319 flight crew is informed by ATC that they are off course. It is determined that the pre departure clearance clearance via ACARS was misinterpreted and a revised segment was not entered in the FMGC.