2001-12 · NASA ASRS report 533804
MD83 CAPT FORGOT THAT HE WAS CLRED FOR A DESCENT AND A CROSSING FIX RESTR TO MEET WHEN ARTCC CTLR ALERTED HIM AND ASKED IF HE WANTED VECTORS TO MAKE THE RESTR.
EVENTS: FO WAS FLYING PLT DURING START OF STAR I DISCOVERED I HAD MISPLACED MY SUNGLASSES. WE RECEIVED AND ACKNOWLEDGED A DESCENT CLRNC WITH CROSSING RESTR. PREOCCUPIED; I TUNED VOR #1 TO THE FREQUENCY SET IN VOR # 2 TO CONTINUE MY SEARCH FOR THE SUNGLASSES. EVENTUALLY A COMMENT FROM ATC STATING A VECTOR MAY BE NEEDED TO GET US DOWN PLUS STATING TUL WAS ROUGHLY 40 MILES AHEAD; GOT OUR FULL ATTENTION AND I DISCOVERED WE WERE BOTH TUNED TO AN INCORRECT VOR. CTR AND TUL APP WERE HELPFUL; BUT NO DIRECT STATEMENT IMPLIED EITHER A RECLRNC OR A PROBLEM. THE TWO FACTORS FOR MY PART WERE AN OBSESSION IN MY SEARCH FOR SUNGLASSES AT THE EXPENSE OF FULL ATTENTION. RELYING ON THE FO HAVING TUNED THE CORRECT VOR (AND NOT IDENTIFYING SAME). A FURTHER THOUGH SLIGHT POINT WAS I PERHAPS RELIED A BIT ON MY MEMORY OF THE VOR FREQUENCY WE TUNED; WHICH WAS ONE DIGIT OFF FROM TUL (I BELIEVE OKC - 114.1 VS 114.4). OBVIOUSLY A LITTLE DISTRACTION AND A BIT OF COMPLACENCY CAN HAVE VERY NEGATIVE RESULTS; EVEN DURING WHAT APPEARS TO BE THE SIMPLEST OR LEAST COMPLICATED OF PROC.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.