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A B737 crew reported that they manually entered and verified an alphanumeric flight plan routing after it did not automatically load. Because of a quick turn around; a transposition error in a waypoint entry was not seen and an enroute track deviation resulted.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 877847 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201003 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737-800 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | FMS/FMC |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Flying |
| Person 2 | |
| Function | Pilot Not Flying First Officer |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types |
Narrative:
Aircraft deviated from ATC route by flying toward incorrect waypoint that was entered in error. FMS did not autoload and was manually loaded by first officer. I read back both the route and legs from the FMS while the first officer compared to the flight plan. After passing an enroute waypoint correctly; the aircraft flew to the next waypoint in the FMS: kdxyu. Approximately 10 minutes later; center asked us to verify we were going to kdyxu. The active waypoint was kdxyu and upon looking at the flight plan; the error was obvious. Controller stated we could go to either waypoint and we elected to go to the correct waypoint: kdyxu. No traffic conflicts were mentioned and the rest of the flight was uneventful. We didn't have a lot of time between flights and this also involved an aircraft change. Human error was introduced when the FMS didn't autoload and was not caught during route/leg verification. Dyslexia is live and well! More attention to detail was/is needed during the route/leg verification especially when the alpha/numeric waypoints are used.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A B737 crew reported that they manually entered and verified an alphanumeric flight plan routing after it did not automatically load. Because of a quick turn around; a transposition error in a waypoint entry was not seen and an enroute track deviation resulted.
Narrative: Aircraft deviated from ATC route by flying toward incorrect waypoint that was entered in error. FMS did not autoload and was manually loaded by First Officer. I read back both the route and legs from the FMS while the First Officer compared to the flight plan. After passing an enroute waypoint correctly; the aircraft flew to the next waypoint in the FMS: KDXYU. Approximately 10 minutes later; Center asked us to verify we were going to KDYXU. The active waypoint was KDXYU and upon looking at the flight plan; the error was obvious. Controller stated we could go to either waypoint and we elected to go to the correct waypoint: KDYXU. No traffic conflicts were mentioned and the rest of the flight was uneventful. We didn't have a lot of time between flights and this also involved an aircraft change. Human error was introduced when the FMS didn't autoload and was not caught during route/leg verification. Dyslexia is live and well! More attention to detail was/is needed during the route/leg verification especially when the alpha/numeric waypoints are used.
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.