Air carrier flight crew departing PBI described a very confusing clearance issue when PDC clearance contained unknown/uncertain fix points; the reporter also indicating ATC was unsure of fix points as well.

Date: 2010-03 · Aircraft: B737-300 · Phase: ground

Anomalies: atc-issue-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-other-unknown

Synopsis

Air carrier flight crew departing PBI described a very confusing clearance issue when PDC clearance contained unknown/uncertain fix points; the reporter also indicating ATC was unsure of fix points as well.

Narrative

Clearance over PDC showed revised segment as BLUFI RAMJT then filed route. I'd never seen this before at PBI; so I called Clearance Delivery. They said they showed nothing like that sent over PDC and then read me a full route clearance. BLUFI doesn't live on any arrival or departure at PBI. There is a BLUFI arrival to MIA and a BLUFI intersection on V295. ATC at PBI said as far as they knew it was a reference to an ATC Radar Sector. BLUFI actually lives just a little northwest of A699 to which our 'real' clearance said we would be vectored; the clearance we got; and would have flown had we combined the revised and filed routes as we are told to do; would have been wrong. In fact; no one at the PBI ATC facility even knew what it was and insisted; correctly I'm sure; that they didn't have any record of a clearance like we got over the PDC. There was not even a reference to the PB6 departure which was part of our actual clearance and should have contained the only altitude restriction in the ATC clearance....there was none. This happened again; except this time PBI ATC knew about it; sort of. When I inquired about it again with Clearance Delivery they thanked me for checking and then read me a full route. This time the PB6 departure was in PDC. In both cases the incorrect BLUFI RAMJT came at the beginning of the PDC in a revised segment. It used to be no harm; no foul with ATC but now they will pursue a violation for a minor NAV deviation.

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