Large transport twin turbojet flight crew on the SERFR1 RNAV arrival to sfo; was given the 'east tra...

Attributes
ACN	1252782
Time
Date	201504
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	SFO.Airport
State Reference	CA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

Oakland center cleared us on the serfr 1 RNAV arrival; east transition to sfo. We incorrectly assumed the plan view of the arrival was a depiction of the 'east' arrival; which would take us on the east side of sfo to land on 19L as per the ATIS. Soon after passing wwavs waypoint; norcal approach realized our error and issued a vector to the west side of the airport. We did not see the narrative on the proper routing on the arrival plate.though there is potential for confusion with the usage of 'east' and 'west' on the serfr arrival; careful review of the arrival plate would alleviate any issues.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Large Transport Twin Turbojet flight crew on the SERFR1 RNAV Arrival to SFO; was given the 'East Transition' by ATC and mistakenly flew the 'West Transition' because it is on the east side of the airport.

Narrative: Oakland Center cleared us on the SERFR 1 RNAV Arrival; East Transition to SFO. We incorrectly assumed the plan view of the arrival was a depiction of the 'East' Arrival; which would take us on the east side of SFO to land on 19L as per the ATIS. Soon after passing WWAVS waypoint; NORCAL Approach realized our error and issued a vector to the west side of the airport. We did not see the narrative on the proper routing on the Arrival plate.Though there is potential for confusion with the usage of 'east' and 'west' on the SERFR Arrival; careful review of the Arrival plate would alleviate any issues.

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.

Large transport twin turbojet flight crew on the SERFR1 RNAV arrival to sfo; was given the 'east transition' by ATC and mistakenly flew the 'west transition' because it is on the east side of the airport.