Air carrier flight crew reported miss-loading the FMS causing a course deviation on approach to destination airport. ATC provided headings and aircraft continued to land safely.

Date: 2021-11 · Aircraft: B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model · Phase: descent

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|deviation-track-heading-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy

Synopsis

Air carrier flight crew reported miss-loading the FMS causing a course deviation on approach to destination airport. ATC provided headings and aircraft continued to land safely.

Narrative

During pre-flight; Pilot Flying briefed the SID and STAR in accordance with recommended practice for flight routes where the termination point of the SID is the same as the start point for the STAR (in our case; way point ZZZZZ). When he saw the branch point on the STAR (ZZZZZ1) he loaded the Runway XXR approach to get the remaining STAR points in the FMC for the brief. Inflight ATIS showed Runway Y for landing; Runway XXR for departures. Pilot Flying briefed the Runway XY approach and the correct landing data; but we missed loading the Runway Y approach in the FMS (which would have loaded the correct branch points). The flight was so short (30 minutes) and since we had briefed it on the ground; we didn't think about checking the branch points again. At ZZZZZ1 the aircraft turned toward ZZZZZ2 for Runway XXR; and after a mile or so ATC queried our direction and the Pilot Flying recognized the error. ATC gave us vectors to Runway XY approach while Pilot Flying loaded the Runway XY ILS in the FMS.

Second reporter narrative

Due to short flight; we briefed the expected arrival and runway transition on the ground in departure airport. Both Pilots task loaded during short flight. Runway change at destination required many items to be re-briefed. We missed loading FMC with the new runway and transition. ZZZ Approach contacted us less than a mile past branch point; we recognized the error and turned to corrected heading.

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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.