B737-700
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 296
Situational Awareness; Distraction; Time Pressure
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors
First leg; first day; new First Officer (F/O); short flight. I wanted to get ahead so I loaded and briefed the expected arrival and approach into SAN. I selected RNPZ to Runway 27 expecting to fly a visual approach but got distracted and did not select the VYDDA transition. I don't recall exactly what the distraction was but I was [distracted]. The A Flight Attendant (F/A) was reporting that the WIFI was inoperative. A call from Dispatch to remove an MEL and being notified by Ops that the Tower in SAN had been evacuated for smoke and that we would be taking a delay. The discrepancy was not discovered in the brief that we accomplished in [departure airport]. On the descent with SoCal when they cleared us for the approach; VDDDA and OKAIN were not loaded so we ended up going direct SAYAE from LYNDI. Abeam VYDDA SoCal asked if we were on a visual. We responded that we were on the RNPZ; so they just cleared us for the visual approach and stated; 'You're supposed to go over VYDDA;' then switched us to Tower. The remainder of flight was uneventful. This is a textbook case of being distracted while performing a critical programming task; making a mistake and then not catching it in a rushed brief on the ground with the door open. I am certain that if I had programmed the FMC while at altitude with the door closed in a sanitized environment this error would not have occurred.
B737-700 Captain reported a track deviation occurred when the FMC was improperly programmed.