Narrative:

On flight we originally received the flight plan route from to stl of ldn J134 flm pxv QBALL9. Upon receiving an amended clearance of ottto colns J134 hnn the captain and I reviewed the new route and entered it in as we saw it connected to ours. Once reaching hnn ATC cleared us direct to pxv. He informed us that the route was supposed to include flm. He also stated that 'hundreds of crews' have made the same mistake with that route. After that incident the flight continued as planned with no further incidents.the deviation was caused by confusion between the alternate route provided by ATC on the pre departure clearance and the original flight plan filed by the company. I changed the flight plan in the FMS as we saw it connected to the original route but were mistaken with which point it connected on. The captain and I reviewed the new flight plan and legs in the FMS and thought we had it correctly entered but during cruise flight we were told that we were off course and missed one waypoint.I believe that two things would help prevent this problem in the future. One would be a clearer description of the new route on the pre departure clearance. Center informed us that this was a consistent problem and he stated that 'hundreds of crews' have made the same mistake with that route/clearance that we received. After calling center on the ground they informed us that they were also compiling data on the deviations in order to find a new route that could possibly prevent this. The second would have been the captain or myself calling clearance delivery before the flight departed to clarify the route and its connecting waypoints.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew misunderstood the revised PDC clearance and so entered the route incorrect before takeoff. In flight ATC detected the track deviation and stated 'hundreds of crew' makes the same mistake.

Narrative: On flight we originally received the flight plan route from to STL of LDN J134 FLM PXV QBALL9. Upon receiving an amended clearance of OTTTO COLNS J134 HNN the Captain and I reviewed the new route and entered it in as we saw it connected to ours. Once reaching HNN ATC cleared us direct to PXV. He informed us that the route was supposed to include FLM. He also stated that 'hundreds of crews' have made the same mistake with that route. After that incident the flight continued as planned with no further incidents.The deviation was caused by confusion between the alternate route provided by ATC on the PDC and the original flight plan filed by the company. I changed the flight plan in the FMS as we saw it connected to the original route but were mistaken with which point it connected on. The Captain and I reviewed the new flight plan and legs in the FMS and thought we had it correctly entered but during cruise flight we were told that we were off course and missed one waypoint.I believe that two things would help prevent this problem in the future. One would be a clearer description of the new route on the PDC. Center informed us that this was a consistent problem and he stated that 'hundreds of crews' have made the same mistake with that route/clearance that we received. After calling Center on the ground they informed us that they were also compiling data on the deviations in order to find a new route that could possibly prevent this. The second would have been the Captain or myself calling clearance delivery before the flight departed to clarify the route and its connecting waypoints.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.