<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1284200, August 2015

A flight crew was cleared from bos via HYLND4 hylnd merto yso but entered HYLND4 hylnd metropolitan yso which caused a track deviation after hylnd. The error was very difficult to detect on the FMC even though company SOP verification was completed during preflight.

Attributes
ACN	1284200
Time
Date	201508
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZBW.ARTCC
State Reference	NH
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 153 Flight Crew Total 10049 Flight Crew Type 5022
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 72 Flight Crew Total 10458 Flight Crew Type 9084
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

Depart bos. Clearance was HYLND4 hylnd merto yso.... As filed. First officer loaded the route and I checked it. He inadvertently entered metropolitan into the FMC. Since merto and metropolitan are almost identical; I too missed the error. As it turns out; merto and metropolitan are similar in distance from hylnd. As we passed over hylnd; the FMC started a left turn toward metropolitan. The controller immediately recognized the left turn and instructed us to go to merto. Even as she gave us the phonetic spelling of merto; it still took us three times to recognize the transposition of the right and the T. Of course this is compounded by the relatively similar distances of merto and metropolitan from hylnd.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew was cleared from BOS via HYLND4 HYLND MERTO YSO but entered HYLND4 HYLND METRO YSO which caused a track deviation after HYLND. The error was very difficult to detect on the FMC even though Company SOP verification was completed during preflight.

Narrative: Depart BOS. Clearance was HYLND4 HYLND MERTO YSO.... As filed. First officer loaded the route and I checked it. He inadvertently entered METRO into the FMC. Since MERTO and METRO are almost identical; I too missed the error. As it turns out; MERTO and METRO are similar in distance from HYLND. As we passed over HYLND; the FMC started a left turn toward METRO. The controller immediately recognized the left turn and instructed us to go to MERTO. Even as she gave us the phonetic spelling of MERTO; it still took us three times to recognize the transposition of the R and the T. Of course this is compounded by the relatively similar distances of MERTO and METRO from HYLND.

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.