Medium Large Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Chart Or Publication; Human Factors; Procedure
After initial climb we were on an assigned heading and told to contact departure. When we did they gave us a climb to a higher altitude and direct to PMPKN intersection. I was hand flying and my captain selected the fix and moved it in the FMS I confirmed it and said confirmed execute; nav mode please. We began a turn to the course following the flight director. Both of us thought that this looked like a drastic course change and was not what we expected as the first several fixes on the cleared course should have made a fairly straight south to north line; however this was showing us going directly west practically then returning to a point to our north. I started to range out my MFD to find where the software was trying to take us and as soon as I got one click out (which still wasn't far enough to see the fix on my screen) ATC said 'Aircraft X turn right immediately to a heading of 360.' My captain spun the heading bug to 360 and I made an immediate turn to that heading. ATC queried us as to the fix we were going to and it was discovered that the fix had been incorrectly entered in the FMS as PUMKN instead of PMPKN; when my Captain entered it in the FMS off of the PDC. We both reviewed the clearance as entered in the FMS prior to closing the door; but I let my captain down when he was reading the clearance and I was looking at the fixes in the FMS they all looked correct as far as what I was hearing; but I failed to remember the correct spelling of this fix and did not cross check it vs the printed PDC.Thus a breakdown in my CRM and monitoring skills. ATC-confirmed the correct spelling and its location in relation to our heading and once we entered it correctly and confirmed the correct spelling; location; etc. then we were once again cleared direct to PMPKN and then handed off to the next controller. At no time was there a TCAS proximal traffic; alert; or warning. I am not sure how close that we were to any other traffic; but it didn't appear that we had gotten very close or closed on anyone at a very high rate; no traffic was observable ahead of us when we were issued the turn to the north.We both reviewed the clearance as entered in the FMS prior to closing the door; but I let my Captain down when he was reading the clearance and I was looking at the fixes in the FMS they all looked correct as far as what I was hearing; but I failed to remember the correct spelling of this fix and did not cross check it vs the printed PDC. Thus a breakdown in my CRM and monitoring skills. Contributing factors were definitely overconfidence in the familiarity that my Captain and I have with this routing. I know the order of the fixes by heart; thus when he was confirming them their order sounded exactly as I was expecting; and unfortunately I did not apply enough scrutiny or attention to detail when confirming this or actually reading the spelling more purposefully and confirming the spelling was correct.Application of more scrutiny etc. as mentioned in the contributing factors section. Also I asked my captain after this occurred if he had confirmed the MFD data and he said that it showed us landing with about 2200 pounds of fuel so he thought that it looked ok. I did not get this done; however I think it would be a good idea to do this as well as confirming the mileage vs the release planned mileage as the incorrect fix was nearly to the western side of Iowa. These things are things I failed to notice as well and even after we turned toward the fix I did not think to look at how far it was to that fix; if I had it would have probably been a strong sign that it was the incorrect fix.
I loaded the FMS with flight plan and performance info; and had to add additional fixes to the canned plan. While doing this; the flight attendant came up to ask me to call ops for some Como items. I was typing in the names of the fixes while she talking; and accidentally misspelled the fix PMPKN as PUMKN. I did not realize my mistake at this point; nor did I know there was a fix in the area with the PUMKN misspelling. When the FO returned from walk around we reviewed flight plan; briefed; and performed all normal preflight duties. Neither of us caught the misspelling mistake; and unfortunately as a result had a turn in the wrong direction.I was distracted while loading the PDC info into the FMS; and believe this was a contributing factor; I also realize now that I should have scaled out the FMS after all info was in to make sure it all looked correct. I also should have had my FO look at the flight plan without me showing what I did.I have learned a few lessons in retrospect of how to prevent a future similar mistake. First; I hold the PDC in one of my hands and carefully look at the spelling; instead of having it against the dash; further away. Secondly; after inputting all of the info; zooming out on the FMS map and making sure it all makes sense. Another good practice will be to have the FO look at everything without my input initially to make sure it all makes sense; and then discuss details. Lastly; I will also compare against fuel planning; to help find possible distance/fuel remaining discrepancies.
Air carrier flight crew reported of a mistake with similar spelled intersections. Pilots entered incorrect intersection into FMS and did not check with the PDC for correct spelling. Aircraft turned away from intended route when it went to the misspelled intersection.