Commercial Fixed Wing
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Confusion; Troubleshooting
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance
Procedure; Company Policy
A discrepancy was discovered in an air carrier flight plan when we were advised by Moncton Center shortly after the aircraft entered Canadian airspace. After researching the flight plans on NASquest; it was discovered that the air carrier had two flight plans with both ZNY and ZBW. ZBW CID XYX was departed; but the aircraft was flying the route of CID XWX. The two flight plans varied slightly within ZBW airspace; but the Controller cleared the aircraft to a fix in Canadian airspace which appeared on both flight plans before the divergence would have happened. This is not an isolated event. Over the past 6 months; approximately 10 aircraft departing the New York Metro area have been discovered on a route other than the one that was departed. All of these aircraft had multiple flight plans in the system. Two weeks earlier; the same scenario happened with another foreign carrier out of JFK. The route divergence happened within ZBW airspace and the Controller had to take immediate action to separate the foreign carrier with another aircraft that was route separated based on the flight plan that was departed.There is a disconnect between when airlines file multiple flight plans and where they are cleared. These events are mostly coming from N90; all from various foreign carriers. Either there is an issue with how ATC sorts these flights plans; or the airlines are not filing correctly or both. There needs to be increased awareness in both instances as neither probably knows it is happening.
The reporter stated that the duplicate flight plan problem happens a couple times a month. ZNY is getting duplicate flight plans and they are getting mismatched from the towers to the pilots. He suspects the user error is on the ATC side. No checks and balances are made to get rid of the duplicate flight plan. Possible error is due to HOST versus ERAM issue; whereas International flights would file through each Center to the destination and the ERAM needs only one flight plan and disseminates on down the road to the correct Center. ZNY is still using HOST and ZBW is using ERAM.The problem may also be caused by the CAATS that Canada and Mexico use. The reporter has heard of other Centers also having this problem. The reporter stated that ZBW is taking action to identify Airline Companies that have caused problems and are in the process of educating them on how to file correctly. The reporter also stated that the problem is from the US outbound; and hasn't heard of any problems coming into the US; because the first controller that would talk to the arrival verifies the clearance the aircraft is on and ensures it is corrected if necessary.
Air Traffic Controller reports repeated problem of duplicate oceanic flight plans identified while the aircraft was enroute. Possible incompatibility between HOST and ERAM computer systems.