Narrative:

[We were on] arrival into bna [in the early evening]. The arrival had a crossing restriction at 11;000 ft. We were told to expect crossing the restriction at 8;000 ft and to plan accordingly. The 8;000 ft restriction required a descent immediately. We crossed the restriction without any problem. We were stepped down and told to fly a heading and intercept the localizer runway 31 into bna. It was about this time we had dual FMC failures. We captured the localizer and were given 2;500 ft and to maintain 2;500 ft until five miles from bna. The localizer however passes over smyrna within a few degrees and since we were only at 2;500 ft we could not see bna in the distance. We also had the dual FMC failure and had no reference to the airport. We both had the localizer tuned and did not tune in bna VOR since we believed the smyrna airport to be bna. The ATC frequency was busy as we approached the smyrna airport as we began our descent. At about 2;000 ft I said that wasn't the bna airport and started a climb back to 2;500 ft. The captain also agreed at the same time when ATC also contacted us and said we were lined up with the wrong airport. We continue ahead without any further incident. The timing of the FMC failure was a distraction. Since the localizer at bna aligns you very close to the smyrna runway we believed we were approaching bna. I would make three recommendations. 1) please include in the [commercial] airport advisory pages a caution about mistaking smyrna airport if on approach to runway 31 into bna. A similar caution such as the one for tampa would be valuable. 2) on the approach plate for runway 31 into bna there is a small note on the plan view mentioning the smyrna airport. This note needs to be increased in size and moved a bit to one side so as to be more visible and noticeable. Something similar as to what ord did with their departure plate when referencing airspeeds over certain waypoints. 3) we contacted the ATC facility and asked if there were any issues and were told no and that it happens all the time. If this is an event with any frequency; then it would be helpful if ATC would mention this when assigning the approach; especially when you are at such a low altitude of 2;500 ft so far from bna. Perhaps a higher altitude to intercept the glideslope would be safer.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-300 First Officer reported dual FMC falure on arrival to BNA. Lacking the orientation aid; the flight crew misidentified Smyrna as BNA.

Narrative: [We were on] arrival into BNA [in the early evening]. The arrival had a crossing restriction at 11;000 FT. We were told to expect crossing the restriction at 8;000 FT and to plan accordingly. The 8;000 FT restriction required a descent immediately. We crossed the restriction without any problem. We were stepped down and told to fly a heading and intercept the LOC Runway 31 into BNA. It was about this time we had dual FMC failures. We captured the LOC and were given 2;500 FT and to maintain 2;500 FT until five miles from BNA. The LOC however passes over Smyrna within a few degrees and since we were only at 2;500 FT we could not see BNA in the distance. We also had the dual FMC failure and had no reference to the airport. We both had the LOC tuned and did not tune in BNA VOR since we believed the Smyrna airport to be BNA. The ATC frequency was busy as we approached the Smyrna airport as we began our descent. At about 2;000 FT I said that wasn't the BNA airport and started a climb back to 2;500 FT. The Captain also agreed at the same time when ATC also contacted us and said we were lined up with the wrong airport. We continue ahead without any further incident. The timing of the FMC failure was a distraction. Since the LOC at BNA aligns you very close to the Smyrna runway we believed we were approaching BNA. I would make three recommendations. 1) Please include in the [commercial] airport advisory pages a caution about mistaking Smyrna airport if on approach to Runway 31 into BNA. A similar caution such as the one for Tampa would be valuable. 2) On the approach plate for Runway 31 into BNA there is a small note on the plan view mentioning the Smyrna airport. This note needs to be increased in size and moved a bit to one side so as to be more visible and noticeable. Something similar as to what ORD did with their departure plate when referencing airspeeds over certain waypoints. 3) We contacted the ATC facility and asked if there were any issues and were told no and that it happens all the time. If this is an event with any frequency; then it would be helpful if ATC would mention this when assigning the approach; especially when you are at such a low altitude of 2;500 FT so far from BNA. Perhaps a higher altitude to intercept the glideslope would be safer.

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.