Narrative:

I was the pilot flying. I programmed runway 17R into the FMS for departure. We were cleared as filed and were to fly the bleco three RNAV departure. I double-checked the FMS flight plan versus the filed flight plan. Everything was correct. While taxing ATC told us we were going to runway 18L. I told the pilot not flying I would be heads down and reprogrammed the FMS for runway 18L. I also checked the performance numbers and they were the same for both runways. We taxied and took off normally. As we were on the bleco three departure; I noticed that there was a flight plan discontinuity after bleco and before irw. During this time the pilot not flying was talking to ATC and was being handed off to another controller. We were going to cross bleco in 4 minutes. I briefly looked at the bleco three departure plate and I asked the pilot not flying when he was done talking to ATC if he wanted me to fix the discontinuity. At this point he had switched frequencies; but not yet contacted the next controller. He told me to fix it. I put irw after bleco and we both confirmed it. After crossing bleco we turned direct irw. As we were climbing through FL210; ATC asked us to expedite our climb through FL260 due to slower traffic ahead. I increased the climb rate. We leveled at FL320 a few minutes later and ATC asked us if we were navigating to zemma. The pilot not flying told ATC we were going direct to irw; to which ATC replied; 'oh that's ok.' the runway change in the FMS created a discontinuity in the flight plan. I did not re-verify the flight plan points after the change. When we fixed the discontinuity in the flight plan we should have verified the change with the departure. Always double check the flight plan after a runway change especially if the departure is an RNAV departure.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CRJ-900 crew reported that after a DFW departure runway change and accompanying FMS reprogramming of the BLECO THREE RNAV; the ZEMMA waypoint dropped out which caused a track deviation BLECO direct IRW.

Narrative: I was the pilot flying. I programmed Runway 17R into the FMS for departure. We were cleared as filed and were to fly the BLECO THREE RNAV departure. I double-checked the FMS flight plan versus the filed flight plan. Everything was correct. While taxing ATC told us we were going to Runway 18L. I told the pilot not flying I would be heads down and reprogrammed the FMS for Runway 18L. I also checked the performance numbers and they were the same for both runways. We taxied and took off normally. As we were on the BLECO THREE departure; I noticed that there was a flight plan discontinuity after BLECO and before IRW. During this time the pilot not flying was talking to ATC and was being handed off to another Controller. We were going to cross BLECO in 4 minutes. I briefly looked at the BLECO THREE departure plate and I asked the pilot not flying when he was done talking to ATC if he wanted me to fix the discontinuity. At this point he had switched frequencies; but not yet contacted the next Controller. He told me to fix it. I put IRW after BLECO and we both confirmed it. After crossing BLECO we turned direct IRW. As we were climbing through FL210; ATC asked us to expedite our climb through FL260 due to slower traffic ahead. I increased the climb rate. We leveled at FL320 a few minutes later and ATC asked us if we were navigating to ZEMMA. The pilot not flying told ATC we were going direct to IRW; to which ATC replied; 'oh that's OK.' The runway change in the FMS created a discontinuity in the flight plan. I did not re-verify the flight plan points after the change. When we fixed the discontinuity in the flight plan we should have verified the change with the departure. Always double check the flight plan after a runway change especially if the departure is an RNAV departure.

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.