A large transport air carrier aircraft was cleared direct to a distant waypoint; sekar; on a flight ...

Narrative:

Our crews had not flown the san juan route for several years. I was looking forward to flying this flight. We were given a non-overwater airplane for the flight. This restricted us to staying within 50 miles of land at all times during the flight. The route we were given would keep us over the islands all the way. The part of the route from florida on was: vrb BR62V zfp BR63V zqa A555 gtk A554 sekar UT09 katok A636 bqn B520 ddp direct. The first officer went to the lavatory. Near zfp ATC said 'cleared direct cegar.' that was the next waypoint ahead of us. I thought; he may have thought we were on a heading and was now putting us on course. But I did not say 'we already are already going direct cegur.' (cegur is the next waypoint after zfp on BR63V). The first officer returned to the cockpit and I told him what ATC had said. The BR63V route has a 50 degree right turn at hankx intersection. After making that turn; ATC gave us a 70 degree left turn and said 'confirm you are cleared direct cegur?' we then realized that he had cleared us direct to the similar sounding sekar not cegur. A point; about 550 miles and 21 waypoints beyond zfp. ATC had not phonetically spelled the waypoint nor did I since it was part of our route. I then confirmed with ATC that direct sekar would keep us within the 50 mile limit. He said that it would. Later when we looked over it on the chart; it turned out that our original course was about the same line as direct sekar until we made the turn at hankx. I should have questioned ATC as to why he issued the clearance direct cegur. I was also very concerned with keeping the 50 mile requirement and for that reason I did not expect a long distance (550 miles) direct shortcut. Cegar was on my FMC displayed route and sekar was 21 waypoints and 6 pages ahead in the FMC. Domestic flight plans have the route at the top of the page (in view on the clip board) vs international flight plans have it the bottom of the long folded pages (not in view on the clip board.) though it would not have changed this situation; I think overwater airplanes should be used on this route in case there are weather deviations or other reasons to go beyond the 50 mile limit.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A large transport air carrier aircraft was cleared direct to a distant waypoint; SEKAR; on a flight to SJU and selected the nearby and similar sounding waypoint CEGUR. The crew was distracted and concerned about the 50 NM over water constraint for their aircraft.

Narrative: Our crews had not flown the San Juan route for several years. I was looking forward to flying this flight. We were given a NON-overwater airplane for the flight. This restricted us to staying within 50 miles of land at all times during the flight. The route we were given would keep us over the islands all the way. The part of the route from Florida on was: VRB BR62V ZFP BR63V ZQA A555 GTK A554 SEKAR UT09 KATOK A636 BQN B520 DDP DIRECT. The first officer went to the lavatory. Near ZFP ATC said 'Cleared direct CEGAR.' That was the next waypoint ahead of us. I thought; he may have thought we were on a heading and was now putting us on course. But I did NOT say 'We already are already going direct CEGUR.' (CEGUR is the next waypoint after ZFP on BR63V). The First Officer returned to the cockpit and I told him what ATC had said. The BR63V route has a 50 degree right turn at HANKX intersection. After making that turn; ATC gave us a 70 degree left turn and said 'Confirm you are cleared direct CEGUR?' We then realized that he had cleared us direct to the similar sounding SEKAR not CEGUR. A point; about 550 miles and 21 waypoints beyond ZFP. ATC had not phonetically spelled the waypoint nor did I since it was part of our route. I then confirmed with ATC that direct SEKAR would keep us within the 50 mile limit. He said that it would. Later when we looked over it on the chart; it turned out that our original course was about the same line as direct SEKAR until we made the turn at HANKX. I should have questioned ATC as to why he issued the clearance direct CEGUR. I was also very concerned with keeping the 50 mile requirement and for that reason I did not expect a long distance (550 miles) direct shortcut. CEGAR was on my FMC displayed route and SEKAR was 21 waypoints and 6 pages ahead in the FMC. Domestic flight plans have the ROUTE at the top of the page (in view on the clip board) VS international flight plans have it the bottom of the long folded pages (not in view on the clip board.) Though it would not have changed this situation; I think OVERWATER airplanes SHOULD be used on this route in case there are weather deviations or other reasons to go beyond the 50 mile limit.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	870138
Time
Date	201001
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZMA.ARTCC
State Reference	FL
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 240 Flight Crew Total 23000 Flight Crew Type 14000
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

A large transport air carrier aircraft was cleared direct to a distant waypoint; sekar; on a flight to sju and selected the nearby and similar sounding waypoint cegur. The crew was distracted and concerned about the 50 NM over water constraint for their aircraft.