AN MD80 FLT CREW FAILS TO VERIFY TURNS IN HOLD WHEN PROGRAMMING THE FMS WHICH RESULTS IN THE ACFT TURNING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

Date: 2001-08 · Aircraft: MD-80 Series (DC-9-80) Undifferentiated or Other Model · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-less-severe|deviation-track-heading-all-types|other-fms-set-wrong-for-hold

Synopsis

AN MD80 FLT CREW FAILS TO VERIFY TURNS IN HOLD WHEN PROGRAMMING THE FMS WHICH RESULTS IN THE ACFT TURNING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

Narrative

FLT WAS AT FL190 FOR HOLDING ABOUT 40 NM W OF MIP VOR. WE WERE INSTRUCTED TO HOLD AT MIP BY NEW YORK ARTCC AS PUBLISHED NW MIP VOR; LEFT TURNS; 1.5 MIN LEGS DUE TO TEST OVER LGA ARPT. USED GPS/FMC TO SETUP AND ENTER HOLD WITH VOR NAV AS BACKUP REF. IN HASTE TO ENTER HOLD INFO INTO BOX BEFORE REACHING FIX WE DID NOT NOTICE HOLDING DIRECTION IN GPS DATABASE WAS NOT THE SAME AS THE PUBLISHED HOLDING DIRECTION ON LGA ARR PAGE. ACFT CROSSED VOR AND BEGAN R-HAND TURN OUTBOUND INSTEAD OF PUBLISHED L-HAND TURN DIRECT ENTRY. AS ACFT WENT THRU ABOUT 90 DEGS OF TURN TO R; I NOTICED OBVIOUS MISTAKE AND CLICKED OFF THE AUTOPLT AND CONTINUED WITH THE TIGHT R HAND TURN (25 DEG BANK; 360 DEGS TURN) BACK TO MIP VOR FOR THE PROPER ENTRY. AT THE SAME TIME ZNY ASKED US WHAT DIRECTION WE WERE TURNING AND WE REPLIED WE WERE CORRECTING BACK TO MIP VOR FOR THE PROPER ENTRY. WHEN ZNY SAW OUR WRONG DIRECTION OF TURN HE SAID 'CONTINUE AROUND TO R-HAND AND RE-ENTER AS PUBLISHED AND CONTINUE TO HOLD.' HE SAID NOTHING ELSE ABOUT OUR MISTAKE AND THERE WERE NO ACFT OR TFC CONFLICTS ASSOCIATED. NEXT TIME I WILL NOT RUSH TO PROGRAM THE DATA INTO THE BOX WITHOUT FIRST CONFIRMING ALL THE APPROPRIATE INFORMATION WITH THE PUBS. UNTIL I DO CONFIRM THE CORRECT DATA I WILL USE THE RAW DATA NAV FOR THE ENTRY; ETC.

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