2009-07 · NASA ASRS report 841817
Flight crew chronicles confused clearance routing event when filed clearance; issued PDC clearance and ATC understood routing did not coincide leading to an unexpected course.
Navigation deviation 1) this is the route taken from RLSE 2 and loaded into the FMC on the ground in BOS: BOS MHT SYR J63 EHMAN YXU PMM.... 2) This is the PDC received from BOS clearance: BOS MHT SYR J63 EHMAN YXU J16 BAE.... Revised segment: None 3) after passing YXU Toronto Center inquired as to what our next fix was. We discovered then that the route ATC had on file was the route filed with RLSE 1. 4) Dispatcher; upon inquiry with BOS; learned that BOS Clearance had not updated the RLSE 2 routing. Hence we received the original RLSE 1 routing via PDC. Both crewmembers had checked the first part of the routing; which was the same in both routes; noted the no revised segment comment on the PDC and assumed we were good to go. Toronto Center made it known otherwise; when after passing YXU and proceeding toward PMM rather than J16 BAE. The mistake was corrected and the remainder of the RLSE 1 route; which ATC had on file; was loaded into the FMC and flown. You can see this was a real sand trap. The only way we could have possibly caught the mistake was to have reviewed the routing in its entirety
Due to storms in Boston; the captain and I were dead heading on a 3+ hour late flight to BOS and we asked the crew to print up our paperwork so we could flight plan on the way since we now had min time on the ground in BOS to plan. Capt and I looked over all paperwork and agreed the plan looked O.K. to us. On the ground in Boston we attempted to print up the normal size FPF but NO printers were working in Boston ops (situation normal). While checking in at the gate the CSR handed us the normal size paperwork and capt and I noted release 2 so the captain used that FPF to load the route into the FMC and I double checked route with RL 2 FPF. We pulled up our PDC and noted REVISED SEGMENT NONE. Everything was fine until about 10 minutes past YXU when Toronto Center asked us where we were going. (Something no pilot wants to hear). We told him we were proceeding direct PMM per flight plan route. Center said we should be on J16 to BAE and asked us what we showed for our route. Much to the dismay of the capt and I we discovered that the PDC contained the RL 1 FPF route with the NO REVISED SEGMENT comment but our RL 2 FPF which we had loaded had us on a completely different route from ATC expected. ATC then rerouted us back to original route. We contacted dispatch by ACARS and the ATC coordinator found out that center had our new filing RLS 02 out of BOS but it looks like tower didn't drop the old PDC so no new one was issued...and tower gave you the old PDC back to the original route. Here are the sand traps: RL 2 was sent to the gate by dispatch but it made no reference to a change in the route. We checked the PDC for revised segments and there were NONE but we did not check the filed route at the top of the PDC (who does if it says no revised segment). Boston ops needs to get at least one printer working so there can be some semblance of proper flight planning but its been a problem in BOS for as long as I can remember. Fortunately for us there was no traffic conflict but there easily could have been. I have copies of FPFs and PDC and ACARS messages to corroborate the event.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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